ETHE-i 
•SPIRIT 
OF-THE 
SERVICE 

EDITH 
ELMER 
•WOOD 


4 


MACMILLAN'S  STANDARD  LIBRARY 


THE    SPIRIT    OF   THE    SERVICE 


"  '  Do    THEY    WORRY    YOU THESE    THINGS  ?  ' 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE 
SERVICE 


BY 
EDITH    ELMER   WOOD 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 
RUFUS   F.   ZOGBAUM 


NEW  YORK 

GROSSET    &    DUNLAP 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,  1903, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1903. 
Reprinted  May,  1906. 
Special  edition,  in  paper  covers,  May,  1905. 


J.  S.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"  '  Do  they  worry  you  —  these  things  ?  *  "      .   Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

*'  '  I  hope  you'll  all  get  the  thanks  of  Congress,'  s#id 

Sue "         .          .         .         .          .         .         .       34 

"  The  judge  advocate  took  up   a   long  list   of  ques- 
tions "        .          .          .          .          .          .          .        88 

"  '  You    see    we     haven't    draped     our    seats    with 

national  flags  to-day  '  "          .          .          .          .132 

"  The  starboard  boats  were  lowered  "     .          .          .      170 
The  Men  at  the  Guns  .  286 


2229047 


The  Spirit  of  the  Service 


CHAPTER   I 


"  X^APTAIN,  Mr.  O'Meara  would  like 
I  i  to  see  you,  sir,"  whispered  the  mes- 
senger, with  an  air  of  mystery  and 
importance.  ^ 

"O'Meara?" 

Captain  Cartwright's  voice  was  at  its  normal 
pitch  and  showed  no  recognition  of  the  name's 
significance. 

"John  C.  O'Meara,  you  know." 

A  prince  of  the  blood  could  not  have  been 
announced  with  more  unction. 

"Who's  he?" 

For  a  moment  the  messenger  stared  at  his 
chief,  aghast  at  such  a  revelation  of  ignorance. 
There  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  Captain 
was  joking,  and,  indeed,  facetiousness  with  his 
subordinates  was  not  among  his  characteristics. 


2        THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Why,  he's  the  strongest  ward  boss  on  this 
side  of  the  river,  sir,"  was  the  anxiously  whis- 
pered response.  "He  has  the  naming  of  every 
officeholder  from  the  congressman  down,  and 
Senator  Flint  does  everything  he  says." 

"  What  does  he  want  here  ?  " 

The  Captain's  voice  had  acquired  a  ring  of 
severity  before  which  the  messenger  quailed. 

"  I  don't  know,  sir,"  he  murmured  apolo- 
getically. 

"  Bring  him  in,"  said  the  Captain,  shortly. 

Mr.  John  C.  O'Meara  had  heavy  features 
and  small  eyes  set  too  close  together,  but  his 
face  was  surprisingly  illuminated  when  he 
smiled,  and  the  slight  brogue  in  his  voice  was 
rather  pleasant.  He  appeared,  either  from 
obtuseness  or  from  policy,  perfectly  unconscious 
of  Captain  Cartwright's  forbidding  manner, 
and  greeted  him  with  cordiality  a  shade 
excessive. 

The  Captain  instinctively  withdrew  still  far- 
ther into  his  shell. 

"  May  I  be  shuttin'  this  ? "  asked  the  visitor, 
proceeding,  as  he  spoke,  to  close  the  door  into 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE         3 

the  adjoining  office.  "I've  a  most  annoyin' 
cold." 

"  The  draught  comes  from  the  window,"  said 
the  Captain.  "  Robinson,  close  the  window 
and  open  that  door  again." 

Mr.  O'Meara  looked  grieved  for  a  moment, 
then  he  smiled. 

"I've  somethin'  to  say  that's  a  trrifle  confi- 
dential," he  suggested.  "  Hadn't  we  better  —  " 

"  No,"  said  the  Captain,  and  his  tone  was 
final. 

"  Just  as  you  say." 

The  politician,  with  a  gently  deprecatory 
wave  of  the  hand,  took  a  chair  near  the  corner 
of  the  Captain's  desk. 

"  You're  runnin'  a  very  important  branch  of 
the  navy-yard  work,  Captain  Cartwright,"  he 
said.  "You  employ  a  large  number  of  men. 
You're  a  stranger  here,  and  it's  not  to  be 
expected  you'd  have  much  personal  knowledge 
of  the  men  on  your  pay-roll.  The  best  of  us 
makes  mistakes  now  and  then  annyhow.  That's 
right,  ain't  it  ?  " 

"It  seems  to  be.     Well?" 


4        THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I'm  takin'  the  liberty  of  an  old  risidint, 
Captain,  to  drop  in  and  offer  you  a  bit  of  a 
suggestion." 

"  I  don't  understand." 

The  Captain's  antagonism  was  unmistakable, 
but  Mr.  O'Meara  still  ignored  it,  and  hitching 
his  chair  a  trifle  closer,  continued  in  a  tone  at 
once  soothing  and  confidential :  — 

"  It's  about  that  man  Klein  you  bounced  the 
other  day.  'Tain't  surprisin'  you  was  fooled 
by  his  name.  But  his  political  convictions 
have  lifted  him  above  the  prejudices  of  his 
race,  and  I'm  able  to  testify  most  positive  to 
his  bein'  as  good  a  Dimocrat  as  walks." 

"  Is  that  all  ?  " 

"  He's  a  man  of  influence,  sir ;  one  of  the 
best  workers  in  the  warrd." 

"He  was  one  of  the  worst  workers  in  the 
machine  shop.  That's  why  he  was  dis- 
charged." 

"  Did  you  obserrve  his  shortcomin's  your- 
self, Captain,  or  did  you  hear  of  'em  from 
annother  ?  " 

"  Both." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE        5 

"  Now,  did  the  one  that  you  got  your  inforr- 
mation  from  happen  to  be  the  foreman  ?  " 

"  Naturally.  It's  his  business  to  report 
inefficiency." 

"Ah,  there  you've  uncovered  the  nigger 
in  the  wood-pile,  my  dear  sir !  That  fore- 
man is  a  Republican,  and  a  most  objectionable 
one." 

"  It's  no  concern  of  mine  what  he  is,  so  long 
as  he  does  his  work.  You  don't  appear  to 
understand  that  this  yard  is  under  civil-service 
rules." 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  know,"  the  visitor  hastened  to 
say,  "  and  it's  the  very  point  I'm  comin'  at. 
I'm  not  sayin'  Weinhart  ain't  a  smart  worrk- 
man  all  right,  but  he's  a  smart  politician,  too, 
and  it's  politics,  not  worrk,  that's  set  him 
against  Klein,  and  set  him  the  harder  for  them 
both  bein'  Dutch,  and  don't  you  ferget  it ! 
Klein  played  a  nate  little  trrick  on  him  at  the 
primaries  last  month,  and  he's  been  layin'  for 
him  iver  sinse.  It's  revenge  that's  actuatin' 
the  man,  sir,  a  clear  case  of  political  persecu- 
tion. And  that  ain't  all  either.  Weinhart's 


got  his  own  brother-in-law  on  the  waitin'  list. 
Fleischmann's  his  name,  and  he's  figurin'  to 
work  him  into  Klein's  job.  Oh,  he's  the  early 
bird,  all  right !  It's  a  cold  day  when  Weinhart 
gits  left,  but  I'm  thinkin'  you're  the  man  to 
see  through  his  desatefulness." 

This  delicate  compliment  produced  a 
twinkle  of  amusement  in  the  Captain's  eyes, 
but  no  relaxation  of  his  firm -set  lips.  He 
jotted  down  a  memorandum  on  a  pad. 

"  I  will  look  into  your  charges,"  he  said. 
"  I  tell  you  frankly  that  I  don't  believe  there 
is  anything  in  them ;  but  if  there  is,  I  shall 
know  what  action  to  take.  There  are  to  be  no 
politics  in  my  department,  one  way  or  the 
other." 

"  That's  right,  that's  right,"  agreed  Mr. 
O'Meara,  heartily.  "And  thank  you,  very 
much." 

"  There  is  no  occasion  for  it,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain, with  grave  but  distant  civility. 

"  Just  one  thing  more,  Captain.  There's  a 
man  registered  on  the  applicants'  list  that  I 
want  to  speak  a  good  word  for." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE        7 

"  They  all  take  their  turn." 

"  Yes,  of  course ;  but  you  and  me  knows 
there's  ways  of  hurryin'  the  turn." 

"  Not  in  my  department." 

"  If  number  two  on  the  list  is  a  better 
worrkman  than  number  one,  which  gits  the 
job?" 

"  The  man  that's  first  on  the  list.  The 
head  of  department  has  no  power  of  selection. 
All  he  can  do  is  to  reject  the  manifestly  unfit. 
The  classification  is  done  by  the  labor  board 
when  the  applicant  registers." 

Mr.  O'Meara  beamed  approval. 

"  I  ain't  quarrelin'  with  your  fancy  names  for 
things,  Captain.  (  Rejectin'  of  the  unfit  *  will 
do  the  trrick  all  right,  I  guess.  Of  course, 
there's  got  to  be  somethin'.  It's  business  and 
it's  common  sinse.  You  don't  fill  up  your 
shops  with  all  the  bums  and  jays  that  happen 
to  write  their  names  down  first.  What  you 
want  is  the  best  men.  The  best's  none  too 
good  for  you,  I  take  it.  Now,  I  can  ricom- 
mend  this  man  as  a  first-class  electrician,  and  I 
happen  to  know  he's  in  nade  of  a  job.  We 


8        THE  SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

should  think  of  that,  too,  when  we  can  —  the 
wife  and  the  little  ones,  you  know." 

He  paused,  but  Captain  Cartwright  made  no 
response. 

"  I  told  him  to  mention  my  name  to  you, 
but  —  " 

Captain  Cartwright  leaned  forward,  resting 
his  elbow  on  the  desk,  and  looked  his  visitor 
squarely  in  the  eyes. 

"  Is  his  name  Callahan  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,  that's  the  man." 

"Well,  you  can  inform  your  friend  Mr. 
Callahan  that  political  wire-pulling  won't  help 
him  to  employment  in  this  yard.  If  he  takes 
my  advice,  he'll  withdraw  his  name  from  the 
applicants'  list  altogether.  I  don't  think  he'll 
get  a  job  even  when  his  turn  comes.  He's 
not  the  sort  of  man  we  want.  I  think  he 
knows  my  sentiments,  though.  I've  expressed 
them  to  him.  If  I  had  known  you  were  the 
man  he  was  talking  about,  I  should  have  de- 
clined to  see  you  this  morning." 

The  politician's  face  hardened.  He  con- 
trolled himself  with  an  effort. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE       9 

"  I  don't  think  you  understand,"  he  said 
with  elaborate  patience. 

"  I  don't  think  I  care  to." 

"One  moment,"  deprecated  the  Irishman. 
"  Callahan  ain't  just  an  old  friend  of  mine,  — 
though  he's  that  too,  —  but  Congressman 
Jerry  Smith's  under  very  considerrable  obliga- 
tions to  him  and  is  very  much  interrested  in 
gettin'  him  good  employment." 

Captain  Cartwright  pushed  back  his  chair 
impatiently. 

"That's  a  matter  that  doesn't  concern 
me  in  the  least  —  or  interest  me,"  he  said 
shortly. 

There  was  a  momentary  revelation  of  the 
savage  in  the  glint  of  Mr.  O'Meara's  small 
eyes,  then  the  curtain  fell  again.  But  it  left 
his  face  very  red. 

"  It  may  interrest  ye  more  than  ye  think 
before  ye're  through,"  he  sneered,  his  brogue 
thickening  as  he  lost  control  of  his  temper. 

Captain  Cartwright  rose. 

"  We  will  call  this  interview  closed,"  he  said 
quietly. 


io      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

The  visitor  rose  too,  choking  and  splutter- 
ing with  rage. 

"  I  believe  ye're  a  Republican  yersilf ! "  he 
exclaimed,  with  the  air  of  one  making  a  most 
damaging  accusation. 

The  crudeness  of  the  man's  point  of  view 
was  so  enormous  that  the  Captain  smiled. 

"  Show  the  gentleman  to  the  door,  Robin- 
son," he  said  suavely,  and  sitting  down  at  his 
desk  again,  took  up  the  specifications  for 
dynamos  he  had  been  examining  before  he 
was  interrupted. 

The  messenger,  awestruck  between  the 
warring  potentates,  tiptoed  to  the  door  and 
opened  it  in  a  gingerly  fashion. 

The  Captain's  smile  and  tone  had  stung  the 
politician  to  fury. 

"  Ye  damned  hypocritical  snob ! "  he 
shouted,  stopping  in  the  doorway  to  shake 
his  fist.  "  Ye  think  ye  can  insult  me  because 
I'm  a  plain  man  of  the  people  and  don't 
parley  voo  fransay  and  trrain  with  the  Four 
Hundred !  I'll  show  ye  what  I  can  do  !  Ye'll 
be  laughin'  out  o'  the  other  side  o'  yer 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       u 

mouth  before  Congressman  Smith  and  Sinator 
Flint  and  Johnnie  O'Meara  gits  through  with 
ye!" 

The  Captain  looked  up  suddenly  from  his 
papers. 

"  That  will  do,"  he  said,  with  a  quarter- 
deck ring  of  authority.  And  something  in 
the  Irishman  responded  to  it,  carrying  him 
out  of  the  door  without  another  word. 

The  Captain  went  on  with  the  specifications, 
but  Mr.  O'Meara's  visit  had  annoyed  him  so 
thoroughly  that  he  found  it  hard  to  settle 
down  to  his  work. 

Presently  the  messenger  opened  the  door. 

"  Here's  a  gentleman  to  see  you,  sir,"  he 
said,  grinning. 

The  Captain  turned  belligerently  to  face 
another  politician,  then  his  frown  relaxed. 

"  Why,  hello,  Wriggles,  what  are  you  doing 
here  ? " 

"  He  would  come,  sir ;  I  couldn't  do  any- 
thing with  him,"  said  his  nurse,  apologetically, 
from  the  rear. 

Stephen  Van   Alen    Whittemore,    otherwise 


12      THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

known  as  Wriggles,  was  between  two  and 
three  years  old  and  highly  picturesque.  Just 
now  he  was  a  symphony  in  soft  browns.  He 
wore  a  long  tan-colored  cloth  coat  trimmed 
with  beaver  and  a  velvet  hat  of  a  slightly 
darker  shade,  under  which  a  circle  of  tawny 
curls  framed  his  chubby  face.  His  eyes  were 
dancing  roguishly  with  the  triumph  of  having 
carried  his  point  over  the  nurse's  veto. 

"Wiggles  turn  see  Dwanfadder,"  he  said 
pleasantly. 

There  was,  in  the  Captain's  manner,  as  he 
set  the  child  on  his  knee,  a  peculiar  tenderness 
which  no  one  but  Wriggles  had  the  power  to 
evoke  —  a  tenderness  which  seemed  to  hold, 
along  with  the  love,  a  pity  too  deep  for  words. 
For  the  sight  of  the  boy  always  brought  be- 
fore him  the  image  of  his  daughter,  and 
the  pity  was  not  only  for  the  little  one's 
motherlessness,  but  because  his  coming  into 
the  world  had  cost  his  mother  her  life.  The 
fact  that  Wriggles  was  quite  unconscious  of 
any  responsibility  in  the  matter  and  would 
probably  always  remain  so,  did  not  in  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      13 

least  detract  from  the  infinite  compassion  his 
grandfather  felt  for  him. 

"  Wiggles  want  wed  penthil,"  said  the  little 
one,  stroking  his  grandfather's  cheek. 

"All  right,  my  boy.  Here's  a  red  pencil.. 
Now  you'd  better  run  along  with  Mollie. 
Grandfather's  busy." 

But  Wriggles  resisted,  by  an  ingenious  stiff- 
ening of  his  body,  the  attempt  to  set  him 
down  on  the  floor. 

"Wiggles  want  boo  penthil  too,"  he  said 
with  great  earnestness. 

"  Humph,"  observed  the  grandfather,  affect- 
ing sternness, "  you  want  a  great  deal,  Wriggles." 

Wriggles  said  nothing,  but  looked  expec- 
tant. He  had  the  face  of  a  Perugino  cherub. 

"  If  I  give  you  a  blue  pencil,  will  you  run 
away  with  Mollie  like  a  good  boy  ? " 

"Yas,"  he  agreed  solemnly. 

The  blue  pencil  was  handed  to  him  and 
Wriggles  was  set  down  on  the  floor. 

But  he  still  stood  there. 

"Wiggles  want  g'een  penthil,"  he  said 
with  angelic  cadences  in  his  voice. 


14      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Wriggles,  I  haven't  got  any  green  pencils, 
and  I  wouldn't  give  you  one  if  I  had." 

Wriggles's  lip  quivered. 

"  You  said  you  would  run  away  like  a  good 
boy  if  I  gave  you  the  blue  pencil.  That's  a 
promise.  I  expect  you  to  behave  like  an  offi- 
cer and  a  gentleman." 

Wriggles  gazed  at  him  doubtfully. 

"  Here's  some  paper  to  make  pictures  on 
with  the  red  pencil  and  the  blue  pencil. 
Good-by,  my  boy.  Now  go." 

Wriggles  gathered  up  his  booty  and  de- 
parted, whether  because  he  wished  to  be  an 
officer  and  a  gentleman  or  because  his  grand- 
father had  said  that  he  didn't  have  any  green 
pencils,  will  probably  never  be  known.  Wrig- 
gles was  quite  capable  of  being  moved  by 
either  consideration. 

The  Captain  turned  back  to  his  desk  in  a 
thoroughly  good  humor.  The  earlier  unpleas- 
ant incident  was  forgotten.  The  child  had  put 
the  world  in  tune  again. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  Cartwrights  were  in  no  sense 
society  people.  This  was  partly  from 
lack  of  inclination  and  partly  from 
lack  of  funds.  The  art  of  making  a  big  show 
on  a  small  expenditure  and  of  keeping  in  step 
with  people  whose  income  was  several  times 
larger  than  theirs,  was  quite  unknown  to  them. 
Yet  they  had  a  rather  wide  circle  of  friends, 
whom  they  delighted  to  gather  around  them. 
Their  entertaining  usually  took  the  shape 
of  dinners,  small  and  informal  enough  not  to 
overtax  the  resources  of  their  modest  estab- 
lishment. The  employment  of  one-night  chefs 
and  butlers  —  that  favorite  device  of  limited 
pocketbooks  —  they  held  in  peculiar  abhor- 
rence. What  their  cook"  and  waitress  could 
not  carry  out  they  never  attempted.  But 
they  had  the  dinner-giving  talent,  which  is  a 
thing  by  itself. 

'5 


16      THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

The  present  little  dinner  was  in  honor  of 
the  two  girls  staying  with  them,  who  had  been 
their  daughter's  most  cherished  friends.  The 
Cartwrights  had  started  out  to  love  them  for 
Elizabeth's  sake  and  had  ended  by  loving 
them  for  their  own. 

Although  they  knew  each  other  well  by 
name  through  their  common  friend,  the  two 
had  never  met  until  the  beginning  of  this 
visit,  but  had  already  become  the  best  of 
good  comrades  in  spite  of,  or  on  account  of, 
their  wide  divergence  in  type.  They  were 
alike  only  in  their  loyalty  to  Elizabeth  and 
in  belonging  to  the  minority  who  leave  the 
world  better  —  if  ever  so  little  —  than  they 
found  it.  Sue  Ballinger  was  a  Californian  of 
commanding  figure  and  warm  blond  coloring, 
whose  virtues  and  faults  were  on  a  generous 
scale.  She  was  fairly  bursting  with  vitality, 
with  energy  both  mental  and  physical,  with 
enthusiasms  of  all  sorts.  Yet  her  admirable 
common  sense  acted  as  a  balance  wheel  and 
kept  her  from  the  gushing,  the  sentimental, 
or  the  merely  eccentric.  Barbara  Thornhill 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      17 

was  a  frail  little  thing,  all  eyes,  who  looked 
like  a  disembodied  spirit.  She  was  a  bundle 
of  reserves  and  shynesses,  concealed  incon- 
gruously enough  under  an  assumption  of 
cynicism,  which  imposed  on  few,  but  seemed 
to  be  the  only  condition  under  which  she 
could  bring  herself  into  communication  with 
her  fellow-mortals  at  all. 

The  two  girls  appeared  downstairs  a  few 
minutes  before  the  arrival  of  the  outside 
guests.  Mrs.  Cartwright  was  still  hovering  in 
and  out  of  the  dining  room,  putting  a  touch  to 
the  table  or  giving  some  final  directions  to  the 
waitress.  She  was  always  nervous  till  the  last 
moment.  Some  generals  are  said  to  be  like  that. 

"  Will  the  men  be  in  uniform,  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright?"  Sue  asked.  Neither  of  the  girls 
was  used  to  navy-yard  life  and  both  took  an 
interest  in  its  externalities. 

"I'm  afraid  not." 

"  Too  bad  !  If  they  wear  Tuxedos,  they'll 
be  mere  ordinary  mortals." 

"  My  heart  is  safe,  then,  for  this  occasion," 
murmured  Barbara,  flippantly. 


i8      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  wish  it  weren't,"  laughed  Sue,  laying  her 
hands  on  Barbara's  shoulders.  "  I  should  like 
tremendously  to  see  you  lose  your  grip  and 
fall  in  love  —  idiotically,  inanely,  in  love,  you 
know." 

Barbara  made  a  wry  face. 

"  I  dare  say  I'd  do  it  that  way,  if  I  did 
it  at  all,"  she  said. 

Captain  Cartwright  came  into  the  room. 

"  Here's  the  Captain.  He  doesn't  look 
commonplace  in  a  dinner-coat.  Perhaps  the 
others  won't  either,"  Sue  exclaimed  hopefully. 

"  Oh,  he  couldn't  look  commonplace  in  any- 
thing,"  returned  Barbara,  "  but  there  are  no 
more  like  the  Captain." 

His  dark  eyes  flashed  at  the  girl,  full  of 
pleasure.  He  bent  over  her  hand  and  lifted 
it  to  his  lips  with  fine  courtliness. 

"  This  is  compensation  for  my  gray  hairs," 
he  said  gallantly. 

The  guests  began  to  arrive,  Lieutenant  Mc- 
M asters  and  Ensign  Ferris,  then  Lieutenant 
and  Mrs.  Janvier.  There  were  no  more. 
This  was  a  household  which  clung  to  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    SERVICE       19 

classical  limitation  concerning  the  number  of 
the  muses. 

The  table  was  round.  It  had  been  one  of 
Mrs.  Cartwright's  few  extravagances.  There 
was  no  dazzle  of  cut  glass  and  silverware. 
The  slender-stemmed  glass  vase  in  the  centre, 
with  its  gracefully  curving  red  carnations,  gave 
the  keynote  of  artistic  simplicity.  There  were 
only  two  kinds  of  wine,  a  claret  and  a  sherry, 
but  they  were  good. 

Sue  and  Barbara  had  met  all  the  guests 
before  except  Mr.  McMasters.  He  was  on 
the  Duluth,  a  ship  that  had  just  come  in. 

"  Do  you  still  find  navy-yard  life  so  pic- 
turesque, Miss  Ballinger  ? "  asked  Mrs. 
Janvier. 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  cried  Sue,  "  I  am  simply 
revelling  in  it!  I  want  to  paint  pictures  of 
it  and  write  poems  about  it  all  the  time.  It 
doesn't  seem  like  America  at  all.  It's  a 
glimpse  into  another  world.  It  doesn't  seem 
like  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  either. 
I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  swept  back  into  the 
Middle  Ages." 


20      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  And  we  flattered  ourselves  we  were  strictly 
up  to  date ! "  laughed  Captain  Cartwright. 

Mr.  McMasters  turned  to  the  girl  beside 
him  with  awakened  attention. 

"  That's  very  interesting,"  he  said.  "  It's 
all  such  a  matter  of  course  and  of  daily 
routine  to  us  that  it's  hard  to  realize  we  look 
at  all  extraordinary  to  outsiders." 

"  You  don't,"  interrupted  Barbara,  incisively. 
"  It's  only  the  gold  lace  and  buttons." 

He  smiled  indulgently,  as  one  might  at  a 
child.  But  before  he  could  explain,  Sue  had 
swept  in. 

"  It's  not  so  external  as  all  that,  Barbara. 
It's  not  just  their  uniforms  that  are  so  strange  to 
us.  It's  their  whole  point  of  view,  their  whole 
standard  of  life,  what  the  Captain  calls  the 
spirit  of  the  service.  You  see,"  she  went  on, 
looking  around  the  table,  "  I've  been  brought 
up  in  a  world  whose  ideals  are  commercial. 
Almost  all  the  people  I  know  reckon  life  by 
dollars  and  cents.  The  others  judge  it  by 
intellectual  standards.  Barbara  is  one  of  that 
sort.  Up  in  New  England,  where  she  comes 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       21 

from,  they  still  believe  in  plain  living  and 
high  thinking." 

"  That's  her  amiable  little  theory,"  whis- 
pered Barbara  in  an  audible  aside.  "  It's 
easy  to  see  she's  never  been  there." 

"  Never  mind  about  localities,  then.  But 
we  both  know  those  two  standards  and  we 
don't  know  any  other.  Now  here  we  drop 
into  a  world  whose  ideals  are  purely  mili- 
tary. I  thought  that  spirit  was  dead  and 
buried  centuries  ago,  and  here  it  is  flourish- 
ing before  my  eyes." 

"Just  what  do  you  mean  by  the  military 
spirit,  Miss  Ballinger  ? "  asked  Mr.  McMas- 
ters,  with  the  air  of  deferential  interest  which 
is  the  sincerest  flattery. 

Sue  considered. 

"Well,  there's  the  loyalty  first — not  simply 
to  the  country.  We're  all  patriotic." 

"According  to  our  lights,"  Barbara  inter- 
polated. 

"  Yes,  according  to  our  lights.  But  the 
naval  officer's  loyalty  has  to  include  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  government  —  at  least  his 
branch  of  the  government." 


22      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"They  are  his  superior  officers,"  ex- 
plained Captain  Cartwright. 

"Exactly,  but  the  rest  of  us  don't  revere 
our  superior  officers." 

"  Neither  do  we,  necessarily." 

"  But  if  you  don't,  you  keep  your  opin- 
ion to  yourselves." 

We  ought   to,  but  we  sometimes  don't.': 
I  am  speaking  of  ideals." 
Go    on.     It's    very    nice    about    the   loy- 
alty, but  I   doubt  if  we  have  a  monopoly  of 
the  quality." 

"There's  the  army,"  suggested  Mr.  Ferris, 
with  an  effort  after  fairness  so  elaborate  that 
it  produced  a  ripple  of  laughter  among  the 
navy  people. 

"  Why,  the  army  and  navy  are  all  the 
same,  aren't  they !  "  asked  Sue,  in  some  be- 
wilderment. 

"  Heavens,  no  ! "  exclaimed  Mr.  Janvier. 
"  Those  poor  devils  never  go  to  sea." 

"  Billy,  do  behave  yourself,"  admonished 
his  wife. 

"They're    the    same    for    the  purposes  of 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       23 

your  analysis,  I  think,"  said  the  Captain. 
"  But  I  hope  there's  some  loyalty  left  in 
civil  life." 

"  Personal  loyalty  here  and  there,  yes ;  but 
hardly  ex-officio  loyalty  to  superiors  as  such." 

"It  sounds  rather  atavistic,  put  that  way, 
doesn't  it  ? "  commented  Mr.  McMasters. 

"  Un-American,  anyhow,"  said  Mrs.  Jan- 
vier. "  I  see  what  she  means.  But  go  on." 

"  Then  there  are  the  two  complementary 
habits  of  command  and  obedience,  —  the 
kind  that  doesn't  argue,  you  know. 

«' « Theirs  not  to  make  reply, 
Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
Theirs  but  to  do  and  die,'  " 

quoted  Mr.  Janvier  with  mock-heroic  em- 
phasis. 

"  The  obedience  part  is  un-American  enough, 
we'll  all  admit,"  said  Mrs.  Cartwright.  "  But 
the  command  —  aren't  we  a  nation  of  sover- 
eigns ?  " 

"  That  only  applies  to  the  feminine  half  of 
the  community,"  observed  the  Captain,  and 
they  all  laughed. 


24      THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

"  Now  don't  let's  get  away  from  the  point. 
This  is  interesting,"  persisted  Mrs.  Janvier. 
"  You  have  the  floor,  Miss  Ballinger." 

"  There's  the  combativeness  of  course," 
Sue  began,  but  was  interrupted  by  a  chorus 
of  protests. 

"  Our  lives  are  not  half  so  combative  as 
those  of  your  friends  in  the  world  of  com- 
merce," urged  the  Captain. 

"You  said  that  because  you  thought  it 
ought  to  be  so,  Sue,  not  because  you  had 
observed  it,"  remarked  Barbara,  dryly.  "  They 
are  really  a  flock  of  doves  cooing  good  will 
to  all  men." 

"  Perhaps  the  wars  of  commerce  are  bit- 
terer than  your  sort." 

"  It's  always  so  when  men  risk  their  for- 
tunes instead  of  their  lives,"  murmured  Bar- 
bara. 

"  But  I  insist  that,  as  your  whole  aim  and 
excuse  for  being  is  to  fight  successful  wars, 
you  must  have  a  combative  spirit.  Of  course 
I  don't  mean  that  you  are  quarrelsome  as 
individuals." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      25 

"  Our  highest  mission,  Miss  Ballinger,  is 
to  preserve  peace,"  said  Mr.  McMasters, 
"  not  to  provoke  wars." 

"  Not  to  provoke  wars,  but  to  fight  them 
when  they  come,"  corrected  the  Captain. 
"  She's  right  about  that.  We  mustn't  forget 
our  fundamental  raison  d'etre" 

"  The  Captain  can  talk,"  said  Mr.  Jan- 
vier. "He  was  in  the  Civil  War.  He's 
the  only  one  of  us  who  ever  smelt  powder 
—  except  in  target  practice." 

"Not  quite  so  bad  as  that.  You  were  in 
the  Korean  expedition  yourself,  weren't  you, 
Janvier  ? "  suggested  Mr.  McMasters. 

"That  opera  bouffe?  Yes,  but  you  don't 
call  that  war,  do  you  ?  You  were  with  the 
guard  landed  at  Panama  to  keep  the  Isth- 
mus open,  weren't  you,  if  it  comes  to  that?" 

"  Mere  police  work,"  said  the  other  re- 
gretfully. 

"  I  haven't  ever  been  under  fire  at  all,"  la- 
mented Mr.  Ferris  in  a  tone  of  utter  mourn- 
fulness. 

"  Never  mind,  sonny,  it's  not  your  fault," 


26      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Mr.  Janvier  encouraged  him.  "  It  will  be 
your  turn  some  day." 

"  Do  you  know  what  you've  all  been  do- 
ing ?  "  cried  Sue,  delightedly.  "  You've  been 
proving  my  point  for  me.  You  every  one 
of  you  envy  the  Captain  because  he  was  in 
the  Civil  War.  Confess  that  you  will  all 
be  delighted  if  this  Venezuelan  boundary 
muddle  should  land  us  in  a  war  with  Eng- 
land ! " 

"  Of  course,"  said  Mr.  Janvier. 

"  Billy ! "  cried  his  wife,  in  a  shocked 
tone. 

"No!"  roared  Captain  Cartwright,  bring- 
ing his  fist  down  on  the  table  in  a  way  that 
shook  the  wine-glasses.  "  No  sane  man  who 
loves  his  country  wishes  for  that.  We  are 
utterly  unprepared  for  it.  We  should  be 
crushingly  defeated." 

The  three  younger  officers  all  leaned  for- 
ward to  protest,  but  Captain  Cartwright  gave 
them  no  chance  to  speak. 

"We  can  handle  an  enemy  of  our  own 
size.  We  aren't  afraid  to  have  the  odds  a 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      27 

little  against  us.  We  might  manage  two  for 
one  at  a  pinch.  But  this  is  too  overwhelm- 
ing. We  should  be  wiped  off  the  face  of 
the  earth.  If  it  has  to  come,"  —  his  voice 
dropped  to  the  low  pitch  of  solemnity, — 
"we  shall  do  our  best.  We  shall  not  be 
disgraced.  We  shall  simply  be  annihilated." 

Then,  all  at  once,  his  voice  fell  back  into 
its  usual  suavity,  and  the  amused  twinkle 
returned  to  his  eyes. 

"  Are  you  all  so  tired  of  life  ? "  he  said, 
looking  around  at  the  younger  men. 

Mr.  McMasters  and  Mr.  Janvier  laughed 
and  said  nothing.  Mr.  Ferris  was  still  quiv- 
ering to  get  in  his  word. 

"  But,  Captain,  with  all  our  harbors 
protected  by  torpedoes,  and  Canada  so 
open  to  an  attack  by  land  — "  he  began 
earnestly. 

"The  navy  would  be  wiped  off  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  every  man  in  it  who  did 
his  duty  would  be  down  among  the  fishes," 
exclaimed  the  Captain,  his  voice  rising  again. 

"But,  Captain—" 


28      THE  SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

"  We  should  have  done  what  we  could,  have 
sold  our  lives  as  dearly  as  possible,  but  there 
could  be  only  one  end." 

"  My  dear,  we're  all  waiting  for  you  to 
carve  those  ducks,"  said  his  wife. 

"Why,  to  be  sure,"  he  laughed,  beginning 
to  ply  the  carving  knife  and  fork  that  he  had 
unconsciously  picked  up  and  laid  down  half  a 
dozen  times.  • 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  don't  say  anything 
more,  Mr.  Ferris,"  Mrs.  Janvier  whispered  to 
him.  "  We  want  our  ducks,  you  know." 

Mr.  Ferris  subsided  reluctantly.  He  was 
young  and  took  himself  with  unnecessary 
seriousness. 

"  Do  you  regard  war  as  a  relic  of  barbarism, 
Miss  Ballinger  ?  "  Mr.  McMasters  asked. 

"  Of  course  I  do.     Don't  you  ? " 

"  On  the  contrary.  I  think  it's  been  one  of 
the  greatest  civilizing  forces  in  the  history  of 
the  world." 

There  was  a  little  murmur  of  interest. 

"  I'm  not  prepared  to  admit  that,"  said  the 
Captain ;  "  but  it's  a  necessary  evil,  and  while 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      29 

human  nature  remains  human  nature,  we  shall 
never  learn  to  do  without  it." 

"  Taken  in  the  large,  and  with  proper  per- 
spective, I  don't  believe  it's  an  evil,  Captain," 
said  the  younger  man.  "  It's  like  medicine. 
It's  unpleasant  to  take,  but  it's  beneficial  in 
the  end.  We  should  all  become  sunk  in  a 
slough  of  commercialism  if  we  didn't  have  a 
war  once  in  a  generation  to  stir  our  nobler 
impulses." 

"  Beautiful !  "  exclaimed  Sue,  with  clasped 
hands.  "You  people  are  an  epic  poem  in  the 
midst  of  an  age  of  prose." 

For  a  moment  Mr.  McMasters  looked 
annoyed. 

"  You  would  find  us  prosaic  enough,  if  you 
knew  us  better,"  said  the  Captain. 

"She  would  find  the  book-keepers  in  her 
father's  bank  equally  heroic,"  Barbara  asserted, 
"  if  her  insight  was  only  keen  enough  to  get 
beyond  the  stage  settings." 

"No,  no,  no!n  protested  Sue.  "Their 
chief  hope  and  ambition  is  to  get  rich.  They 
wouldn't  say  so,  perhaps,  if  you  asked  them. 


30      THE  SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

They  would  hedge  against  failure  by  saying 
that  all  they  wanted  was  to  make  a  living.  And 
if  you  asked  a  naval  officer,  he  might  say  all 
he  wanted  was  to  get  along  without  discrediting 
his  uniform.  He  wouldn't  acknowledge  that 
he  hoped  to  become  famous  some  day.  But 
he  does — just  as  the  man  in  civil  life  hopes  to 
become  rich." 

"  Do  you  all  hope  to  become  famous  ? " 
laughed  Mrs.  Janvier,  looking  from  one  to 
another  of  the  navy  men. 

"  You  needn't  deny  it,"  said  Sue,  with  the 
rapt  air  of  a  prophetess,  "  I  know" 

They  all  laughed,  but  no  one  denied  it. 

"  There  are  a  certain  number  of  authors, 
artists,  and  scientists  who  prefer  fame  to 
wealth,"  suggested  Mrs.  Cartwright. 

"  Oh,  of  course." 

"  And  the  hope  of  glory  is  hardly  the  high- 
est possible  animating  motive,  anyhow,"  ven- 
tured Mr.  Me  Masters. 

"  Certainly  not.  I  wasn't  trying  to  credit 
you  with  the  highest  possible  motives.  Glory, 
as  an  incentive,  is  just  as  selfish  as  money,  but 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      31 

it's  much  more  picturesque,  and  lends  itself 
much  better  to  the  purposes  of  epic  poetry, 
which  is  what  we  were  talking  about." 

"  There  are  scientists,"  said  Mr.  Ferris, 
earnestly,  "who  work  only  for  the  love  of 
truth.  There  are  artists  who  believe  in  art  for 
art's  own  sake." 

"  They  say  so,"  Barbara  murmured,  "  and 
they  surely  ought  to  know." 

"  Don't  you  believe  so,  Miss  Thornhill  ? " 
he  asked  in  a  grieved  tone. 

"  Dear  me,  no,"  she  bantered.  "  Some  ego- 
tism is  more  refined,  some  less,  but  it's  the 
ruling  force  everywhere." 

"  How  about  those  who  give  up  everything, 
who  devote  their  lives  to  the  service  of 
others  —  Sisters  of  Charity,  for  instance  ?" 

"The  vanity  of  renunciation,"  said  the  girl, 
"  or  else  they  are  long-headed  enough  to  keep 
their  bank  accounts  in  the  next  world." 

Mr.  Ferris  looked  unspeakably  shocked. 

"  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  think  so  meanly 
of  my  fellow  men  and  women,"  he  said  so- 
berly. 


32      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Mr.  Ferris,"  broke  in  Sue  across  the 
table,  "  don't  let  her  deceive  you.  She  is  just 
the  girl  to  become  a  Sister  of  Charity  and  ex- 
ile herself  to  a  leper  colony." 

"  Don't  be  so  graphic,  Sue,"  said  Barbara 
with  a  little  shiver.  "  That  would  be  so  hor- 
ribly unpleasant." 

Mr.  Ferris  looked  in  some  bewilderment 
from  one  to  the  other.  He  had  been  inclined 
to  admire  Barbara  very  much,  but  her  psycho- 
logical subtleties  were  too  much  for  him.  He 
was  a  literal  and  earnest  youth  himself,  wholly 
free  from  complexities. 

"Well,"  observed  Mr.  McMasters,  revert- 
ing to  the  original  theme,  "  Miss  Ballinger 
might  as  well  be  generous  and  fit  us  out 
with  a  sense  of  duty  or  some  other  every- 
day motive  force,  for  I  don't  see  how  we 
are  to  pursue  our  favorite  loadstar  of  mar- 
tial renown.  The  Captain  won't  let  us  fight 
England,  and  there  isn't  any  other  possible 
enemy  in  sight." 

"  Yes,  there  is,"  said  the  Captain,  with  sud- 
den earnestness.  "  There  is  another  enemy  in 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      33 

sight,  and  there  will  be  war  before  the  close  of 
the  century." 

"  With  whom  ? "  cried  Mr.  Ferris. 

"  Germany  ?  "  suggested  Mr.  Janvier. 

<f  That  will  come  later,"  said  the  Captain, 
with  quiet  conviction. 

"  Spain,  then,"  said  Mr.  McMasters. 

"Of  course." 

"  Oh,  no  !  " 

«  Never !  " 

"  Why  should  we  go  to  war  with  Spain  ? " 

"  It's  inevitable.  The  never-ending  insur- 
rection in  Cuba  is  an  abscess  —  in  our  neigh- 
bor's flesh,  it's  true,  but  so  close  to  ours  that 
we've  got  to  cut  it  out  as  a  measure  of  self- 
protection." 

"  The  mass  of  our  people  don't  care  enough 
about  it  to  fight." 

"  Wait,  and  see." 

"  It  isn't  any  of  our  business.  Why  should 
we  interfere  r yj 

€<cAm    I   my   brother's    keeper?'     That's 
what  Cain  said." 
,    <;  VVTe  don't  want  Cuba. 3 

D 


34      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  didn't  say  we  did." 

"  Would  you  have  us  fight  to  help  those 
half-breeds  gain  their  independence?  What 
good  would  it  do  them  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  say  I  wished  it.  I  said  it  was 
inevitable." 

"  There'll  not  be  much  glory  in  fighting 
Spain,"  said  Mr.  Me  Masters.  "  The  enemy's 
too  weak." 

"  Ship  for  ship,  we  are  very  evenly 
matched,"  asserted  the  Captain.  "There  is 
no  other  navy  so  nearly  equal  to  ours." 

"  On  paper,  yes." 

"  Don't  make  the  mistake  of  despising  your 
adversaries." 

"  I  don't  despise  them,  Captain.  I  know 
them  too  well  for  that.  I  know  their  individ- 
ual gallantry  and  their  collective  ineffective- 

n 

ness. 

"  We  shall  see ! "  cried  the  host,  pushing 
back  his  chair  and  rising  to  let  the  ladies  pass 
out.  "  I  prophesy  that  the  war  will  not  be 
lacking  in  glory  I'* 

"  I  hope  you'll  all  get  the  thanks  of  Con- 


O 
2 
O 

O 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE       35 

gress ! "  said  Sue,  laughing  back  over  her 
shoulder. 

"I'd  rather  have  some  prize-money,  per- 
sonally," observed  Mrs.  Janvier. 

"  Oh,  no,  you  wouldn't,"  Sue  protested. 
"  That's  just  your  American  aversion  to  ex- 
pressing your  deepest  feelings.  You'd  rather 
have  your  husband  presented  with  a  nice 
useless  gold  sword  than  any  amount  of  prize- 
money." 

"  I  wonder  if  I  would  ? "  she  mused  be- 
tween jest  and  earnest. 

"  If  you  wouldn't,  don't  tell,"  advised 
Barbara.  "  Sue  can't  stand  having  her  theories 
upset." 


CHAPTER   III 


it  lovely?"  cried  Sue, 
with  whole-souled  enthusiasm, 
when  the  last  of  the  guests  had 
gone  and  Captain  Cartwright  had  retired  to  his 
den  to  smoke  a  farewell  pipe.  "  Weren't  they 
all  dears  ?  How  do  you  manage  it,  Mrs. 
Cartwright?  The  people  you  get  together 
actually  converse." 

"  Don't  people  always  '  converse  '  when  you 
are  around,  Sue  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no  ;  sometimes  they  are  frozen  solid.'* 

"It  must  be  an  icy  reserve  that  doesn't  melt 

in  the  fire  of  Sue's  enthusiasms,"  said  Barbara. 

"Wretch!"  laughed  Sue.     "  It  would  take 

a  volcano  to  meltjoa.     Don't  I  wish  I  could 

see  you  once  in  love  !  " 

"You've    said    that    before.     How   in    the 
world  do  you  think  I  would  act  ?  " 

36 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      37- 

"  Oh,  like  other  people  —  foolishly  —  nor- 
mally." 

Barbara  laughed. 

Sue  busied  herself  for  a  few  minutes  in  pass- 
ing around  a  bonbon  dish,  nowise  discouraged 
by  the  fact  that  she  was  the  only  one  who 
retained  any  zest  for  its  contents. 

"  How  Barbara  does  distress  Sir  Gala- 
had ! "  she  observed,  as  she  finished  the 
last  chocolate. 

"  Poor  Mr.  Ferris  !  "  said  Mrs.  Cartwright. 
"He  admires  her  so  much,  but  he  can't  quite 
make  her  out." 

"  He  started  with  the  assumption  that  she 
was  a  saint,"  commented  Sue,  —  "judged  by 
her  eyes,  you  know.  But  he  finds  her  conver- 
sation shockingly  unsaintly." 

"He  is  probably  a  worthy  youth,"  yawned 
Barbara,  "  but  he  is  sadly  deficient  in  a  sense 
of  humor." 

"  What  did  you  think  of  Mr.  McMasters  ? " 
Mrs.  Cartwright  asked. 

"  Oh,  he's  a  jewel,"  cried  Sue,  "  a  diamond 
of  the  first  water ! " 


38      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  He's  rather  good-looking,"  Barbara  re- 
marked. 

"  Rather  good-looking,"  Sue  mocked.  "  He's 
the  handsomest  man  you've  seen  in  a  twelve- 
month, and  you  know  it,  Barbara  Thornhill !  " 

"  No,  Captain  Cartwright  is,"  said  the  girl. 

"  Well,  I  grant  you  the  Captain.  But  Mr. 
McMasters  comes  next." 

"  No.     Wriggles  comes  next." 

"  Bless  his  angel  heart !  He  ought  to  come 
first  in  any  catalogue.  I  can't  have  him  second 
even  to  his  grandfather.  But  he's  not  quite  a 
man  yet." 

"  More  of  a  man  than  some  of  them  are," 
snapped  Barbara. 

"You  aren't  accusing  Mr.  McMasters  of 
effeminacy,  I  hope?" 

"  No,"  Barbara  admitted  grudgingly,  "  I 
wasn't  referring  to  him.  My  remarks  were 
general." 

"  He  is  not  only  good-looking,"  Sue  re- 
sumed serenely,  "  he  is  intelligent." 

"  Intelligent  enough  to  appreciate  you? 
Barbara  retorted. 


39 

"  That  takes  rather  a  high  degree,"  laughed 
Sue.  "  But  here's  a  problem  for  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright  to  explain.  He's  good-looking  and 
intelligent,  and  distinctly  simpatico.  And  he 
doesn't  seem  to  be  a  woman-hater.  Yet  he 
looks  thirty-five.  How  has  he  managed  to 
escape  matrimony  all  this  time  ? " 

"  He  hasn't,"  said  Mrs.  Cartwright  gravely. 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  he  has  a  wife  ? " 
Sue  exclaimed. 

"  No." 

"She  is  dead,  then?" 

"  No." 

"  Not  divorced  ?  " 

Mrs.  Cartwright  nodded. 

The  expression  on  both  girls'  faces  under- 
went a  sudden  change. 

"  Ugh ! "  protested  Barbara,  with  evident 
distaste. 

"  I  wouldn't  have  believed  it,"  sighed  Sue. 

"  It  was  a  very  unfortunate  affair,"  Mrs. 
Cartwright  explained,  "  but  it  was  altogether 
Mrs.  McMasters's  fault.  She  was  a  very  beau- 
tiful woman,  but  absolutely  heartless,  and,  as 


40      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

it  turned  out,  conscienceless  too.  She  behaved 
outrageously.  He  was  not  to  blame  in  any 
way." 

"He  was  to  blame  for  marrying  such  a 
woman,"  said  Barbara,  severely. 

"  He  was  very  young,"  Mrs.  Cartwright 
pleaded. 

"  Oh,  c  very  young,' '  the  girl  scoffed. 
"  He  was  probably  twenty-five,  wasn't  he  ? 
A  man  under  thirty  can  be  excused  for  being 
any  sort  of  a  fool  because  of  his  extreme  youth. 
A  girl  is  held  strictly  to  account  if  she  isn't 
rational  by  the  time  she's  twenty.  It's  so 
hideously  unfair ! " 

"  There  are  several  unfair  things  in  the 
world,  but  I  am  not  sure  that  is  one  of  them. 
I  believe  a  girl  of  twenty  is  really  as  mature  as 
a  man  of  thirty.  And  John  McMasters  was 
several  years  under  twenty-five  when  he  mar- 
ried that  woman.  It  has  been  ten  years  since 
the  divorce.  He  has  learned  a  good  many 
things  since  then,  I  suspect.  And  if  he  ever 
chooses  a  wife  again,  he  will  do  it  more 
wisely." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      41 

"Again?  He  isn't  thinking  of  marrying 
again,  is  he  ?  " 

Sue's  voice  had  a  note  of  disgust  in  it. 

"  Not  that  I  know  of.  But  I  don't  see  any 
reason  why  he  shouldn't." 

"  I  should  think  he  would  have  had  enough 
of  women." 

"  Doubtless  he  thought  so,  too.  Perhaps 
he  thinks  so  yet.  But  ten  years  is  a  longish 
time." 

"  Do  you  believe  in  divorced  people's  mar- 
rying ?  "  exclaimed  Sue,  turning  to  Barbara. 

"  I  am  a  Catholic,"  said  the  girl,  quietly. 

"  Of  course  I  know  your  church  doesn't 
allow  it,  but  —  " 

"That  settles  it  for  me." 

"  Oh,  what^  nonsense ! "  groaned  Sue. 
"You've  got  a  brain  of  your  own,  haven't 
you?" 

But  Barbara  wisely  refused  to  be  lured 
into  controversy. 

"What  do  you  think  about  it?"  she 
parried. 

"  Your  brain  ?  " 


42      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  No,  the  divorce  question." 

"  I  haven't  any  religious  principles  involved, 
you  know.  It's  just  a  matter  of  feeling  with 
me.  But  the  feeling  is  very,  very  strong.  Of 
course,  looking  at  it  one  way,  I  can  see  that  it 
seems  pretty  hard  to  condemn  a  man  to  soli- 
tude for  his  whole  life  because  he  made  a  mis- 
take in  character-reading  in  his  boyhood.  But 
—  I  can't  imagine  a  self-respecting  girl  marrying 
him.  He  would  be  so  hopelessly  — second- 
hand." 

The  phrase  came  out  explosively. 

"Aren't  they  rather  apt  to  be  second-hand 
anyhow,"  suggested  Barbara,  "  even  when  they 
haven't  figured  in  the  divorce  courts  ? " 

Sue  turned  on  her  fiercely. 

"  Don't  be  so  disgustingly  cynical.  There 
are  men  whose  lives  are  as  clean  as  any  girl's." 

"  And  you  are  going  to  wait  for  one  of  that 
kind  ? " 

"Of  course  I  am  !  " 

"You'd  better  come  along  to  that  cloister 
you  predicted  for  me  to-night  and  take  the 
veil." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE  SERVICE      43 

"  You'd  better  both  of  you  go  upstairs  to 
bed  and  get  your  beauty  sleep,"  suggested 
Mrs.  Cartwright,  whose  traditions  were  a  trifle 
shocked  by  the  turn  the  discussion  had  taken. 

"  Somebody's  left  his  overcoat,"  Sue  called 
out  as  they  passed  through  the  hall. 

"  It  must  have  been  Mr.  McMasters.  The 
others  wore  boat  cloaks." 

"  Good  thing  he  didn't  come  back  for  it  and 
catch  us  discussing  him !  Good  night,  Mrs. 
Cartwright." 

"  Good  night/' 


CHAPTER   IV 

IT  was  a  brilliant  November  morning,  with 
a  sky  so  blue  that  it  was  almost  purple. 
There  was  plenty  of  snap  in  the  air,  but 
plenty  of  glow  in  the  sunshine. 

The  Cartwrights  were  assembling  on  their 
front  steps,  buttoning  their  gloves.  Even  the 
Captain  had  given  himself  that  most  unwonted 
thing,  a  holiday.  For  this  was  no  mere  black 
figure  on  the  calendar,  but  the  day,  elect  to 
redness,  of  the  annual  football  game  between 
West  Point  and  the  Naval  Academy. 

A  little  tremor  of  pure  exultation  passed 
over  the  shapely  form  of  Sue  Bal linger. 

"  Isn't  it  glorious,  just  to  be  alive  ! "  she  said. 

"  I  really  believe  you  find  it  so,  you  lucky 
Greek,"  returned  Barbara.  "  Now  when  /  en- 
joy myself,  it's  in  spite  of  being  alive,  not  on 
account  of  it." 

Sue  stared  incredulous. 

44 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      45 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  she  demanded. 

Barbara  laughed. 

"  Oh,  you  can't  understand  what  it's  like  to 
be  shut  up  in  a  puny,  inadequate  little  body 
like  mine.  Feel  of  my  hand." 

"  Why,  it's  like  ice." 

"  It's  always  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock  before 
my  blood  begins  to  circulate.  I'm  never  really 
thawed  out  except  in  the  dog-days." 

She  fastened  the  furs  closer  around  her 
throat. 

"  Why  don't  you  exercise  ? "  suggested  the 
practical  Sue. 

"  Ugh  !  "  Barbara  shuddered.  "  The  mere 
necessary  business  of  living  is  exercise  enough 
for  me" 

"  Poor  Barbara ! "  cried  Sue,  laying  a  hand 
on  her  shoulder.  "  But  on  such  a  day  as  this, 
how  can  you  help  —  " 

"  Oh,  I  see  it's  beautiful,"  said  the  girl,  im- 
patiently ;  "  but  I'm  too  cold  to  thrill  with 
joy.  I  suppose  you  think  your  own  mood  is 
a  highly  spiritual  one,  —  that  your  soul  is 
soaring  up  and  flapping  its  wings  together 


46      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

with  rapture.  But  it  isn't  at  all.  Your  joie- 
de-vivre  is  merely  the  bien-etre  of  the  healthy 
young  animal.  And  as  a  healthy  young  ani- 
mal, I  am  a  distinct  failure." 

"  Poor  Barbara ! "  murmured  Sue  again. 
"  But  as  a  soaring  soul,  you're  a  distinct  suc- 
cess," she  added. 

Barbara's  retort  to  this  compliment  was  cut 
short  at  a  grimace  by  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Ferris, 
Mr.  McMasters,  and  an  ornate  lieutenant  of 
marines  named  Fairchild,  who  was  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Sue's. 

The  young  men  were  provided  with  yards 
upon  yards  of  blue  and  gold  ribbon,  which  the 
girls  tied  into  rosettes  and  streamers,  and  dis- 
tributed among  the  party,  the  largest  rosette 
of  all  being  pinned  to  the  tan-colored  coat  of 
Wriggles. 

"  He  shall  be  our  mascot,"  said  Mr. 
McMasters,  swinging  the  boy  on  to  his 
shoulder,  as  the  watchman  opened  the  tall 
iron  gate  in  front  of  the  house  and  signaled  to 
a  passing  car  to  stop. 

There  were  several  navy  people  already  on 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      47 

the  car,  and  they  found  many  more  at  the 
ferry,  and  still  others  at  the  West  Shore  sta- 
tion, where  a  sort  of  impromptu  reception  was 
held  till  the  "navy  special"  appeared  with  blue 
and  gold  streamers  flying  from  the  engine  and 
enthusiasm  escaping  like  steam  from  every 
door  and  window.  The  train  had  left  Wash- 
ington early  in  the  morning,  carrying  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  a  number  of  Congressmen 
and  Senators,  and  most  of  the  naval  officers  on 
duty  in  the  city.  A  couple  of  extra  cars  con- 
taining the  football  team  and  a  large  deputa- 
tion of  officers  and  their  families  from  the 
Naval  Academy  had  been  switched  on  at 
Odenton,  and  another  car  had  filled  up  at 
Philadelphia  with  the  League  Island  people. 

The  Cartwrights  and  the  rest  of  the  Brook- 
lyn contingent  passed  through  the  holiday 
train,  greeting  old  friends  right  and  left,  till 
they  reached  the  empty  car  which  had  just 
been  added  for  their  benefit. 

The  spirits  of  the  whole  party  bubbled  like 
champagne.  It  would  have  taken  a  very  inert 
lump  of  clay  not  to  respond  to  the  glory  of 


48      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

the  sunshine  and  the  magnetism  of  the  crowd. 
Years  and  rank  and  dignity  were  laid  aside, 
and  youth  —  vociferous  and  confident  of  vic- 
tory—  held  undisputed  sway. 

A  procession  of  rooters  was  formed,  which 
passed  back  and  forth  through  the  train. 
Each  man's  left  hand  was  on  the  shoulder  of 
the  man  in  front,  while  his  right  hand  waved 
a  flag  or  a  ribbon-wrapped  cane.  The  leader 
wore  a  preposterously  tall  silk  hat  swathed  in 
blue  and  gold.  The  occupants  of  the  car 
through  which  they  were  passing  joined  in 
the  yells  and  applauded  the  songs. 

With  never-failing  interest  they  inquired  in 

unison :  — 

"Hully  Gee! 
Who  are  we  ?  " 

And  with  undimmed  enthusiasm  replied :  — 

"We  are  the  U.  S.  N.  A.  V." 
They  sang  a  plaintive  little  song  about  — 

"  Army  blue  !     Oh,  army  blue  ! 
We'll  make  the  army  blue  ! 
We'll  chase  their  team  right  off  the  field 
And  score  a  point  or  two." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      49 

This  was  followed  by  verses  of  affectionate 
doggerel  about  the  various  members  of  the 
eleven,  punctuated  by  ear-splitting  yells. 

"Rah!  Rah!  Rah! 
Hi!  Ho!  Ha! 
U.  S.  N.  A. 
Boom!  Sis!  Bah! 
Navy!" 

Finally,  as  the  climax  of  the  demonstration, 
the  Chicago's  goat,  which  had  been  brought 
along  as  a  mascot  and  domiciled  till  now  in 
the  baggage  car,  was  led  through  the  train 
amid  deafening  applause,  while  the  following 
elegant  stanzas  were  sung  in  his  honor:  — 

"  The  army  mule  will  soon  be  dead, 
We'll  fill  his  carcass  full  of  lead, 
We'll  hurt  that  swelling  on  his  head 
And  turn  his  whiskers  gray. 

Hooray ! 

«'  The  navy  goat  is  jolly  —  O 
On  account  of  army  folly  —  O, 
He  has  butted  mules,  by  golly  —  O, 
And  he'll  butt  again  to-day. 

Hooray!" 

Wriggles  craned  his  neck  to  watch  the  goat 
out  of  sight,  but  he  found  the  racket  excessive. 


50      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Tell  zoze  mans  keep  'till,"  he  said,  with 
extreme  dignity.  "  Wiggles  can't  talk." 

The  shout  that  greeted  this  announcement 
seemed  to  him  quite  unnecessarily  offensive. 

"Wiggles  not  like,"  he  asserted  severely, 
clambering  down  from  the  seat.  "  Wiggles 
get  off  zis  car." 

His  dignified  deliberateness  had  not  pre- 
pared them  for  the  sudden  dart  he  made 
toward  the  door,  but  a  dozen  hands  were 
stretched  out  to  seize  him,  and  he  was 
promptly  returned  to  his  grandmother.  He 
showed  symptoms  of  wrath  at  this  stage, 
though  not  of  tears  —  Wriggles  seldom  cried. 
But  the  storm  was  averted  and  the  small  boy 
made  happy  by  an  invitation  to  join  the  pro- 
cession on  the  shoulders  of  a  stalwart  friend. 
From  this  point  of  vantage  he  found  the 
noise  exhilarating,  and  waved  his  arms  and 
shouted  with  the  rest. 

After  making  sure  that  it  was  a  vestibule 
train  and  that  all  the  outside  doors  were  closed, 
the  anxious  grandmother  decided  that  Wrig- 
gles was  not  in  a  position  of  extreme  peril,  and 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      51 

relaxed  her  vigilance  sufficiently  to  carry  on 
a  fragmentary  conversation  with  her  friends. 
But  she  was  not  really  at  ease  till  the  train 
slowed  down  at  the  West  Point  station  and 
Wriggles  was  returned  to  her  intact. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  had  never  been  excessively 
nervous  over  her  own  child,  but  the  shock 
of  her  daughter's  death,  and  the  feeling  that 
Wriggles  was  held  in  trust  for  a  father  cruis- 
ing among  the  inaccessibilities  of  the  South 
Atlantic  station,  combined  to  give  her  im- 
agination of  possible  dangers  an  abnormal 
stimulus. 

Sue  had  never  been  at  West  Point  before. 
She  stood  still  and  looked  around  her,  drawing 
in  her  breath  with  a  quick  little  catch  of  rap- 
ture. The  Hudson  curved  and  swept  majes- 
tically at  her  feet.  The  foot-hills  of  the 
Catskills  rose  directly  from  its  banks.  Over 
the  mountains  lay  the  golden  mantle  of  late 
autumn  foliage.  The  scarlet  of  the  maples 
had  passed  away,  but  the  yellow  leaves  of  the 
chestnuts  still  remained  and  blended  with  the 
brown  of  the  oaks. 


52      THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  It's  beautiful  enough  to  be  California ! " 
exclaimed  Sue,  and  the  rest  of  the  party 
laughed  with  keen  enjoyment. 

"  I  don't  know  the  first  blessed  thing  about 
football,"  Mrs.  Cartwright  confessed,  as  they 
drew  near  the  scene  of  the  contest. 

"Neither  do  I,"  cried  Barbara.  "I  don't 
know  a  scrimmage  from  a  quarterback." 

"They  are  often  rather  intimately  con- 
nected," said  Mr.  McMasters,  who  was  walk- 
ing beside  her. 

Sue,  from  the  heights  of  knowledge,  gave 
them  a  compassionate  glance  over  her  shoulder, 
and  resumed  her  eager  discussion  of  technicali- 
ties with  the  group  of  young  men  who  sur- 
rounded her.  The  coming  and  going  of  the 
color  in  her  cheeks  was  very  pretty  to  watch. 

The  naval  visitors  had  been  provided  with 
some  camp-stools  and  improvised  benches  on 
one  side  of  the  field.  The  army  supporters, 
more  numerous  of  course  and  equally  enthusi- 
astic, were  massed  on  the  other  side. 

The  Chicago's  goat  was  being  paraded  up 
and  down  in  front  of  the  navy  benches. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      53 

"  Who  ever  heard  of  a  goat  from  Chicago  ?  " 
shouted  a  West-Pointer  between  two  hollowed 
hands.  "  Did  you  mean  it  for  a  hog  ? " 

"  We  don't  mean  you  to  hog  the  victory  ! " 
responded  an  embryo  admiral  in  similar  sten- 
torian tones. 

At  this  point  Wriggles  created  a  diversion 
by  insisting  on  riding  the  goat,  —  a  feat  which 
was  finally  accomplished  with  the  assistance  of 
four  naval  cadets,  two  to  lead  the  goat  and  two 
to  hold  on  to  Wriggles.  It  was  all  like  a  big 
family  party,  and  Wriggles,  the  youngest  per- 
son present,  gave  the  finishing  touch  to  that 
effect.  It  is  very  different  nowadays,  when 
thirty  thousand  people  assemble  in  properly 
constructed  grandstands  to  watch  the  game. 

The  two  teams  trotted  on  to  the  field  in 
quick  succession,  and  were  greeted  with  shouts 
of  encouragement  from  their  supporters. 

"  Now  they  will  all  proceed  to  pile  them- 
selves on  top  of  each  other,"  remarked  Bar- 
bara, "  and  presently  some  one  will  be  carried 
unconscious  from  the  field,  and  every  once  in 
a  while  a  man  will  blow  a  whistle,  and  very 


54      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

occasionally  everybody  will  stand  politely  by 
and  let  some  one  kick  the  ball,  and  I  shan't 
have  the  faintest  idea  what  is  happening  ! " 

"Shall  I  explain  it  to  you?"  asked  Mr. 
McMasters. 

"  Oh,  dear,  no.  It  would  be  labor  thrown 
away.  Watch  the  game  and  enjoy  its  beauties, 
and  tell  me  who  beats." 

"You'll  know  that  by  the  location  of  the 
noise,"  said  Mrs.  Cartwright.  "  That's  the 
way  /  tell,  and  I  always  shout  when  we're 
ahead." 

"It  will  be  fun  to  hear  Barbara  shout," 
laughed  Sue. 

"Your  ears  will  get  weary  waiting  for  that 
sound,"  retorted  Barbara.  "  My  enthusiasms 
don't  express  themselves  that  way." 

"Has  she  got  any?"  inquired  Mr.  Mc- 
Masters. 

"They're  of  the  deep,  silent  kind,"  Sue 
replied. 

"  Still  waters  run  deep,"  said  Mr.  Ferris, 
with  such  solemn  admiration  in  his  voice  that 
they  all  felt  foolish. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      55 

The  navy  won  the  toss  and  chose  their  goal, 
so  the  army  had  the  kick-off.  All  eyes  were 
turned  to  the  centre  of  the  field. 

"That's  their  great  kicker.  Watch  the 
ball." 

It  rose  in  a  noble  curve,  and  sank  toward 
the  hands  waiting  to  receive  it. 

"  Oh-h-h,  he's  fumbled  it ! "  and  a  sigh  of 
disappointment  ran  along  the  navy  line. 

"Toots  has  it!" 

"Toots  can't  run!" 

"  If  it  was  only  Sandy  !  " 

"  There,  he's  down  !  " 

"He  held  it,  though!" 

"  What  on  earth  are  those  fellows  kicking 
about  ?  It's  plain  enough,  isn't  it  ? " 

"  Oh,  line  up  !     Line  up  !     Play  ball ! " 

"  Why  do  they  have  to  get  into  such  ex- 
traordinary attitudes?"  This  from  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright.  "  Mercy !  there  they  all  are  on  top  of 
each  other.  What  are  they  trying  to  do  ? " 

The  whistle  blew,  and  there  was  a  mo- 
mentary lull. 

"  What    unmitigated    savages    they    are ! " 


56      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

observed  Barbara.  "  Wriggles,  my  cherub, 
I  want  you  to  promise  me  that  you  will  never 
play  football ! " 

Wriggles  made  no  reply.  He  was  gazing 
at  the  field,  open  eyed  and  mouthed,  speech- 
less with  amazement.  He  had  been  taught 
that  all  violence  of  deportment  was  ungentle- 
manly,  and  the  problem  of  reconciling  this 
hitherto-unquestioned  doctrine  of  the  nursery 
with  the  anomalies  of  the  scene  before  him  was 
giving  him  trouble. 

Barbara  looked  about  her  with  an  amused 
smile. 

"You  and  I  are  the  only  sane  people  left," 
she  said  to  Mrs.  Cartwright,  "  and  I  am  not 
entirely  sure  about  you" 

Captain  Cartwright  was  oblivious  of  every- 
thing in  the  world  outside  of  football.  He 
had  cast  off  thirty  years,  and  was  watching  each 
point  of  the  game  with  the  eagerness  of  a  boy. 
Sue  was  equally  absorbed,  and  so,  of  course, 
were  all  the  young  men.  Only  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright and  Barbara  retained  a  certain  con- 
sciousness of  themselves  as  apart  from  their 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      57 

surroundings.  Yet  even  they  felt  their  spirits 
droop  when  the  West-Pointers  scored  a  touch- 
down, and  experienced  a  thrill  of  exultation 
when  they  failed  to  kick  the  goal.  The  mus- 
cles swelled  in  their  throats,  and  they  watched 
the  game  with  growing  absorption,  although 
they  made  no  sound  when  the  rest  joined  in 
the  shouting. 

Suddenly,  with  a  snap,  it  all  stopped.  The 
first  half  was  over.  West  Point  had  scored 
four,  Annapolis  nothing.  The  navy  was  no 
longer  jubilant.  It  set  its  teeth  and  made 
resolves.  Also,  I  am  afraid  it  talked  a  little 
about  the  heavier  weight  of  the  West-Pointers. 
They  enter  two  years  later  than  at  the  Naval 
Academy,  and  when  things  go  wrong,  that  two 
years  is  said  to  make  a  difference  in  the  aver- 
age weight  of  the  players. 

"Oh,  we're  not  beaten  yet,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain, in  answer  to  his  wife's  question,  "but  it 
will  be  an  uphill  game." 

"  What  for  good  navy  boys  'top  killin'  bad 
army  boys  ?  "  Wriggles  asked  earnestly.  His 
little  brain  had  been  busily  at  work  with  the 


58      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

scanty  data  furnished  him,  and  had  evolved  a 
result  of  satisfying  logic. 

"  Wriggles ! "  cried  his  horrified  grand- 
mother. "  Where  did  you  get  such  an  idea  ? 
Nobody's  bad.  Nobody's  being  killed.  It's 
all  play." 

But  Wriggles's  laboriously  acquired  theory 
was  not  to  be  so  easily  shaken. 

"Army  boys  bewy  bad,"  he  asserted. 
"  Haffa  be  killed.  Give  Wiggles  'tick.  Wig- 
gles go  kill  zoze  bad  boys." 

It  took  the  concentrated  diplomacy  of  the 
family  to  dissuade  him  from  carrying  out  his 
heroic  resolve. 

The  army  side  of  the  field  was  noticeably 
more  animated  at  this  time  than  the  navy 
side.  All  the  navy  people  were  talking,  to 
be  sure,  but  in  tones  distinctly  subdued. 

At  the  blowing  of  the  whistle  every  sound 
ceased,  and  all  eyes  were  once  more  turned 
to  the  field.  For  the  time  being  this  game 
was  the  most  important  thing  in  the  world. 
It  was  well  played  and  hard  fought.  The 
contestants  seemed  to  be  very  evenly  matched. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       59 

The  fear  expressed  here  and  there  among  the 
navy's  backers,  that  the  Annapolis  team  lacked 
staying  power  and  would  go  to  pieces  if  they 
fell  behind  in  the  first  half,  proved  quite 
unfounded.  There  was  no  want  of  grit  on 
either  side.  The  hands  of  the  clock  were 
moving  on  relentlessly.  West  Point  had 
been  prevented  from  increasing  her  lead,  but 
Annapolis  had  not  been  able  to  score.  Only 
a  few  minutes  remained. 

All  at  once  a  shout  went  up,  "  Sandy ! 
Sandy !  " 

The  navy's  favorite  had  the  ball,  and  with 
marvellous  dexterity  was  dodging  through  the 
enemy's  line.  He  passed  several  linemen  by 
sheer  cleverness  of  feint,  threw  off  a  back, 
and  saw  the  field  clear  ahead  of  him.  It 
now  became  a  question  of  speed,  for  the 
West-Pointers  were  close  at  his  heels.  The 
distance  was  tremendous,  —  more  than  ninety 
yards,  —  but  Sandy  was  famous  as  a  runner. 
The  whole  navy  side  shrieked  encouragement. 
A  white-haired  admiral,  fairly  dancing  with 
excitement,  cried,  "  Go  it,  Sandy,  go  it ! " 


60       THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

Captain  Cartwright,  climbing  nimbly  on  to  a 
three-legged  stool,  shouted,  "  Good  boy, 
Sandy,  keep  it  up  !  " 

It  was  a  magnificent  run,  but  the  foremost 
of  his  pursuers  was  plainly  gaining  on  him. 

AH  the  spectators  were  on  their  feet,  the 
excitement  of  a  lifetime  crowded  into  a  few 
seconds. 

"  Safe  ! "  was  the  cry  of  relief,  when  the 
panting  runner  hurled  himself  over  the  goal 
line  just  as  the  hand  of  the  enemy  was 
stretched  out  to  touch  him. 

Then  pandemonium  broke  forth  on  the 
navy  side.  The  spectacular  character  of 
Sandy's  achievement  appealed  to  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  on-lookers.  But  the  enthusiasm 
was  infinitely  greater  than  it  would  have  been 
had  the  same  play  occurred  earlier  in  the 
day.  They  had  been  saved  from  the  very 
jaws  of  defeat,  and  the  revulsion  of  feeling 
drove  them  wild.  Women  waved  handker- 
chiefs and  parasols,  men  brandished  canes  and 
tossed  up  their  hats.  The  air  was  rent  with 
full-lunged  yells  of  victory. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      61 

Sue,  glancing  toward  Barbara,  caught  her 
with  flashing  eyes  and  heaving  breast,  shout- 
ing lustily.  With  a  laugh  of  triumph  Sue 
threw  her  arms  around  the  slight  figure  and 
rapturously  hugged  it. 

"  Oh,  you  delightful,  unbent  New-Eng- 
lander ! "  she  cried.  "  You  melted  seraph  ! " 

"  Hypnotism  of  the  crowd,"  said  Barbara, 
a  little  shamefacedly. 

The  score  was  now  tied,  and  if  they  made 
a  goal,  the  navy  would  be  ahead.  On  all 
sides  people  announced  that  they  would  be 
thoroughly  satisfied  with  a  drawn  game,  but 
they  held  their  breath  while  the  ball  was  be- 
ing kicked  as  if  their  life  depended  on  it. 

It  flew  fairly  between  the  posts,  and  again 
they  shouted  joyfully.  Five  more  anxious 
minutes  passed,  and  the  game  was  over. 
There  had  been  no  further  scoring. 

Victory  snatched  from  defeat  is  the  sweet- 
est thing  on  earth.  The  cadets  from  Anna- 
polis capered  about,  insanely  jubilant.  Officers 
of  presumably  mature  years  were  hardly  less 
demonstrative.  A  triumphal  procession  formed, 


62      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

and  marched  trainward.  The  rooters  led  with 
cheerful  demoniac  yells.  The  members  of 
the  team  were  escorted  with  a  frenzy  of 
veneration  almost  religious.  Sandy,  the  hero 
of  the  hour,  was  borne  aloft  on  men's  shoulders, 
who  were  proud  of  the  honor  of  carrying  him. 
The  crowd  surged  and  buzzed  around.  Here 
and  there  an  enthusiastic  youth,  unable  to 
restrain  his  emotions,  gave  voice  to  a  wild 
whoop. 

On  the  train  the  excitement  gradually 
quieted  down.  There  was  an  occasional  ef- 
fort to  revive  the  demonstrations  of  the 
morning,  but  everybody  was  tired  —  as  much 
from  excess  of  emotion  as  from  any  physical 
cause. 

More  than  one  weary  pleasure-seeker  ex- 
pressed envy  of  Wriggles,  whose  convenient 
size  and  age  permitted  him  to  indulge  frankly 
in  the  repose  from  which  his  elders  were  cut 
off.  He  did,  in  fact,  reenter  his  own  front 
door  fast  asleep  in  his  grandfather's  arms  and 
was  undressed  and  put  to  bed  without  open- 
ing his  eyes. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      63 

"  Was  Mr.  McMasters  ever  five  feet  from 
you  during  the  entire  day  ? "  Sue  asked 
through  the  half-open  door  into  Barbara's 
room  as  the  two  girls  were  getting  ready  for 
bed  that  night. 

"  Hardly.  But  do  you  know  where  his 
eyes  were  all  that  time  ?  He  never  took 
them  off  of  you." 

"  What  ?  "  exclaimed  Sue,  appearing  in  the 
doorway,  braiding  her  hair. 

"  Fact." 

Sue  looked  pleased,  puzzled,  and  a  trifle 
incredulous. 

"He  hardly  said  two  words  to  me  all  day," 
she  objected. 

"And  he  hardly  looked  two  minutes  at 
me." 

"  He  evidently  found  you  more  enter- 
taining." 

"He  evidently  found  you  better  looking." 

"  I'd  rather  he'd  think  me  intelligent  than 
handsome." 

"/  wouldn't,"  Barbara  asserted.  "How- 
ever, I  don't  see  what  difference  it  makes  to 


64      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

either  of  us.  He's  still  *  second-hand,'  isn't 
he?" 

"  I  hope  I  can  like  a  man  without  wishing 
to  marry  him,"  said  Sue,  with  quiet  dignity. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  Barbara  cried  peni- 
tently. "  I  didn't  mean  to  be  impertinent." 

"  In  any  one  without  your  celestial  eyes," 
Sue  remarked  severely,  "it  would  have  been 
vulgar'9 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  day  after  the  visit  of  John  C. 
O'Meara,  Captain  Cartwright  scrupu- 
lously set  about  fulfilling  his  promise 
to  look  into  the  circumstances  attending 
the  discharge  of  the  machinist  Klein.  He 
found,  as  he  expected,  ample  corroborating 
evidence  of  the  man's  inefficiency.  The  state- 
ment that  the  foreman  had  a  brother-in-law 
registered  on  the  applicants'  list  proved  to  be 
correct ;  but  as  no  effort  had  been  made  to 
get  him  taken  on  out  of  turn  or  to  put  him 
into  the  place  left  vacant  by  Klein,  the  cir- 
cumstance did  not  seem  especially  incriminat- 
ing. A  man  can't  be  expected  to  strangle 
all  his  brothers-in-law. 

This    investigation    completed,  the    Captain 

proceeded  to  dismiss  John  C.  O'Meara  from 

his   mind  as   effectually   as   he   had    dismissed 

him    from    his    office.      That    the    politician's 

r  65 


66      THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

visit  might  bear  fruit  in  unpleasant  conse- 
quences to  himself  (barring  the  possibility  of 
its  repetition)  never  even  remotely  occurred 
to  him. 

He  was,  therefore,  taken  completely  by 
surprise  when  he  received  from  the  Navy 
Department  a  rather  sharply  worded  commu- 
nication asking  why  he  did  not  carry  out  the 
civil  service  rules  for  the  employment  of 
labor  in  navy  yards. 

His  emotions  were  those  of  anger,  not  of 
alarm.  He  informed  the  Department  briefly 
that  he  had  used  his  best  endeavors  to  carry 
out  both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  regu- 
lations, and  asked  for  specific  allegations  and 
the  name  of  the  person  making  them. 

There  was  no  immediate  reply,  but  a  few 
days  later  a  young  officer  on  duty  at  the 
Department  was  sent  to  investigate  Captain 
Cartwright's  methods  of  administration.  After 
collecting  testimony  from  a  number  of  work- 
men, he  called  on  the  Captain  at  his  office 
and  explained  his  mission. 

Now  Captain  Cartwright  did  not  relish  be- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      67 

ing  investigated,  and  the  fact  that  the  inves- 
tigator was,  from  his  point  of  view,  a  mere 
boy  (fifteen  years  of  service  look  short  beside 
five  and  thirty)  made  the  circumstance  doubly 
galling.  Furthermore,  the  questioning  of  his 
workmen  before  he  himself  was  notified  that 
the  investigation  was  in  progress,  struck  him 
as  an  entirely  unnecessary  piece  of  discourtesy. 
He  kept  his  temper,  but  the  effort  to  do  so 
produced  a  rigid  formality  quite  foreign  to 
his  usual  manner.  And  the  young  man,  who 
had  more  zeal  than  discretion,  concluded  that 
the  Captain  had  something  to  conceal. 

The  first  result  of  the  investigation  was  a 
letter  from  the  Department  asking  Captain 
Cartwright  to  explain  why  he  had  discharged 
the  machinist  Klein,  who  was  affirmed  by  the 
affidavits  of  seven  fellow-workmen  to  be 
thoroughly  efficient,  and  why  he  had  discrimi- 
nated against  the  applicant  Callahan  by  re- 
fusing to  give  him  employment  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  he  had  recommendations  satis- 
factory to  the  labor  board. 

This    letter    removed   the    last   vestige    of 


68      THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

doubt  from  the  Captain's  mind  that  O'Meara 
was  making  good  his  threats  of  revenge.  In 
some  sinuous  fashion,  quite  beyond  an  honest 
man's  imagination  to  follow,  the  wires  he  was 
able  to  manipulate  evidently  did  reach  upward 
to  the  respectabilities  of  the  general  govern- 
ment. 

It  was  his  wife's  earnest  conviction  that  he 
ought,  at  this  time,  to  give  an  account  to  the 
Department  of  O'Meara's  visit  and  threats; 
but  the  Captain's  habits  of  economy  with 
the  written  word  were  inveterate.  His  re- 
plies concerning  Klein  and  Callahan  were 
nakedly  concise  and  contained  no  reference  to 
related  matters. 

He  was  not  used  to  being  found  fault  with. 
His  career  had  been  marked  by  a  series  of 
commendations  for  service  faithfully  and  well 
performed.  The  situation  wore  on  him.  But 
he  tried,  with  an  attitude  finely  judicial,  to 
make  allowances  for  the  Department. 

Not  so  his  wife.  There  were  no  half  tones 
in  her  world.  It  was  divided  sharply  into 
black  and  white,  and  any  one  daring  to  cast 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      69 

the  smallest  reflection  on  her  husband  could 
have  little  doubt  of  the  color  assigned  him. 
That  the  Department  had  been  imposed  upon 
by  the  unscrupulous  tools  of  O'Meara  was  no 
excuse  in  her  eyes.  Her  indignation  raged 
hotly,  and  in  its  forcible  utterance  her  husband 
may  have  found  a  sort  of  vicarious  compen- 
sation for  his  own  severe  self-repression. 

Annoying  as  the  episode  had  been,  Captain 
Cartwright  still  did  not  dream  of  any  really 
serious  consequences,  and  an  earthquake  could 
not  have  startled  him  more  than  the  order 
convening  a  court  of  inquiry  to  investigate 
his  administration. 

It  was  the  first  touch  of  the  tar-brush  of 
disgrace  that  had  ever  come  near  his  immacu- 
late reputation.  The  consciousness  of  recti- 
tude is  a  great  thing,  no  doubt,  but  it  can 
hardly  furnish  comfort  in  every  contingency. 
Those  who  are  used  to  the  rough  give-and- 
take  of  the  business  world,  or  the  world  of 
politics,  can  hardly  understand  the  sensitive- 
ness to  the  slightest  aspersion  on  his  honor 
of  a  man  who  has  lived  a  life  protected  in 


70      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

that  direction.  It  is  like  a  doubt  cast  on  a 
woman's  chastity.  That  it  should  be  publicly 
investigated  is  heart-breaking,  even  where  vin- 
dication is  sure. 

Captain  Cartwright  aged  ten  years  overnight. 
In  the  morning  he  told  his  wife,  breaking 
it  to  her  gently  as  he  would  some  frightful 
calamity. 

"  It  is  monstrous,  it  is  outrageous ! "  she 
protested.  "  No  matter  how  zealously  a  man 
does  his  duty  and  obeys  orders  all  his  life,  he 
is  liable  to  be  dragged  before  a  court  on  a 
trumped-up  charge  —  " 

"  Gently,  gently,  my  dear.  It's  bad  enough, 
but  don't  exaggerate.  I  shall  probably  be 
allowed  to  walk  on  my  own  feet.  And  —  the 
people  at  the  Department  are  not  omniscient, 
you  know.  It's  not  a  trumped-up  charge  so 
far  as  they  are  concerned.  They  believe 
they've  got  data  to  go  on.  They  don't  know 
me  very  well  up  there  — " 

"  No,  you've  always  kept  away  from  Wash- 
ington, and  you've  always  snubbed  Congress- 
men and  Senators." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       71 

"  Not  snubbed,  dear,  surely  not  snubbed,  — 
simply  not  boot-licked  them." 

"  It's  been  pretty  close  on  to  snubbing, 
Julius.  Do  you  remember  when  you  sat 
next  to  Senator  Van  Tromp  at  the  Queen's 
Birthday  banquet  last  spring  and  he  took 
such  a  fancy  to  you  and  asked  you  to  go  on 
a  yachting  trip  with  him,  and  you  told  him 
there  was  no  fun  for  you  in  yachting,  that 
you  got  enough  of  the  sea  in  a  professional 
way?" 

"Well,  don't  I?" 

"And  then  he  asked  you  to  his  country 
place  for  over  Sunday,  and  you  told  him  it 
was  quite  impossible  for  you  to  go." 

"  I  was  perfectly  polite  about  it." 

"  You  could  have  gone,  had  you  wished." 

"  But  I  didn't  wish." 

"  Exactly." 

"  He  was  agreeable  enough,  but  I  shouldn't 
have  found  him  sufficiently  interesting  to  spend 
two  or  three  days  with  if  he  had  been  John 
Smith,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  I  should 
do  so  simply  because  he  was  Senator  Van 


72      THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

Tromp.  Besides,  he  was  a  millionnaire,  and 
there  was  no  way  in  which  I  could  have 
returned  his  hospitality." 

"  And  there  was  that  Congressman  we  met  at 
the  Arnolds'.  You  didn't  know  who  he  was, 
and  got  so  friendly  with  him  that  you  arranged 
to  take  him  trout-fishing,  and  then,  when  you 
found  out  he  was  a  Congressman,  you  invented 
some  flimsy  excuse  and  broke  the  engagement." 

"  It  wasn't  only  his  being  a  Congressman, 
you  know.  He  was  on  the  naval  committee, 
and  there  was  a  bill  before  it  then  in  which  I 
might  have  been  supposed  to  be  interested. 
It  would  never  have  done  at  all." 

"Well, just  now  it  would  be  convenient  if 
they  knew  you  a  little  bit  better  at  Washington." 

"  I'm  sorry,"  he  said,  half  humorous  and 
wholly  dejected,  "  that  I  don't  meet  with  your 
approval.  I  thought  —  " 

"  Julius ! "  she  exclaimed  with  fine  incon- 
sistency, "  I  wouldn't  have  you  a  particle  dif- 
ferent for  anything  in  the  world !  "  And  she 
leaned  over  the  back  of  his  chair  to  kiss  him. 

"That's  good,"  he  answered,  with  a  brave 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      73 

attempt  at  a  smile.  "  I  regret  some  things  in 
my  life,  but  really  and  truly  I  can't  regret  that 
I  have  always  kept  away  from  that  hotbed  of 
political  self-seekers  in  Washington." 

Nothing  had  been  said  thus  far  to  Sue  and 
Barbara  about  the  matters  that  were  disturbing 
their  hosts,  although  both  the  girls  had  noticed 
that  something  was  amiss.  But,  as  the  news 
concerning  the  court  of  inquiry  would  soon  be 
public  property,  Mrs.  Cartwright  forced  herself 
to  tell  the  girls  about  it. 

Of  course  they  were  sympathetic  and  indig- 
nant. They  tried  to  belittle  it  and  they  tried 
to  cheer  Mrs.  Cartwright,  but  without  much 
success.  They  knew  too  little  of  navy  life 
or  navy  standards  to  be  able  to  speak  with 
authority. 

"  Can  we  be  of  any  use  to  you  while  this  is 
going  on,  Mrs.  Cartwright,  or  should  we  be 
just  in  the  way  ?  "  asked  Barbara,  suddenly. 

"  You  certainly  wouldn't  be  in  the  way,  but 
I'm  afraid  we  shall  hardly  be  able  to  throw  off 
our  troubles  enough  to  make  it  very  pleasant 
for  you." 


74      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Oh,  don't  you  worry  about  that !  Dances 
and  dinners  are  not  the  breath  of  our  nostrils. 
And  if  you're  sure  we  shan't  be  in  the  way, 
we'll  stay  right  here  and  see  you  through. 
Won't  we,  Sue  ?  " 

Sue  had  been  thinking  hard. 

"  No,"  she  said  slowly,  "  I  don't  see  that 
we'd  be  of  the  faintest  use  to  Mrs.  Cartwright. 
I  think  she  would  really  rather  be  alone  with 
her  husband  just  now.  I  believe  this  is  the 
preordained  time  for  me  to  make  my  promised 
visit  to  you,  Barbara,  and  afterward  we  can 
both  come  back  to  see  Mrs.  Cartwright  if  she 
wants  us.  Now  be  honest,"  she  cried,  taking 
Mrs.  Cartwright's  hands  and  looking  into  her 
eyes.  "  Wouldn't  that  suit  you  better  ?  " 

Mrs.  Cartwright  hesitated.  The  traditions 
of  hospitality  were  strong  with  her. 

"  Be  honest !  "  Sue  repeated. 

The  girl's  sincerity  was  so  obvious  that  Mrs. 
Cartwright  responded  to  it. 

"  If  you'll  both  promise  to  come  back  after- 
ward. We  shall  need  distraction  when  it's 
over." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      75 

"  Yes,  yes,"  they  cried  together.    "  Of  course 

MI  » 

we  11  come. 

"  How  clever  you  are ! "  said  Barbara  to 
Sue  next  time  they  were  alone.  "  I  didn't 
know  she  would  rather  have  us  go.  I  thought 
it  would  seem  like  deserting  her.  What  won- 
derful intuitions  you  have  !  " 

"  I  have  a  further  intuition  that  a  certain 
young  man  named  Ferris  will  be  very  sad  when 
some  of  us  depart." 

"  Don't  your  intuitions  go  far  enough  to  tell 
you  that  the  young  man  named  Ferris  is  an 
unspeakable  bore  ?  " 

"  Captain  Cartwright  says  he's  a  good  officer." 

"  I  don't  doubt  it." 

"  And  he  admires  you  hugely,  Barbara, 
although  your  speeches  do  shock  him  now 
and  then." 

"  They'll  shock  him  more  before  he's  through 
if  he  doesn't  let  me  alone.  When  he  sits  down 
and  gazes  at  me  like  a  sentimental  setter  and 
emits  those  wonderful  sighs  of  his,  I  feel  as 
if  I  were  in  the  middle  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean." 


76      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"Lost  in  a  trackless  waste  of  emotion?" 
suggested  Sue,  sympathetically. 

"  No,  seasick,"  replied  Barbara,  concisely. 

During  the  brief  remainder  of  their  visit  Sue 
and  Barbara  would  have  been  glad  to  consult 
their  other  navy  friends  as  to  the  prospects  of 
this  court  of  inquiry,  which  the  Cartwrights 
regarded  so  tragically ;  but  of  course  they  could 
not  speak  of  it  until  the  news  was  made  public. 
The  last  afternoon,  on  the  tennis  courts,  the 
girls,  who  had  been  absorbed  since  breakfast  in 
the  packing  of  their  trunks,  found  it  had  been 
in  the  morning  paper  and  was  the  chief  subject 
of  conversation.  They  were  not  a  little  reas- 
sured—  for  the  Cartwrights'  gloom  had  been 
contagious  —  by  the  universal  indignation  ex- 
pressed and  the  uniformly  perfect  confidence 
shown  in  the  outcome. 

Mr.  Fairchild,  Mr.  McMasters,  and  Mr. 
Ferris  walked  home  with  them,  making  plans 
to  see  them  off  that  evening  on  the  train.  As 
they  paused  for  a  few  last  words  at  the  steps, 
Captain  Cartwright  appeared  in  the  doorway 
and  insisted  on  their  all  coming  in  to  dinner. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      77 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  appalled,  but  made  no 
sign.  If  her  husband  had  shown  such  incon- 
siderateness  at  an  ordinary  time,  he  would  not 
have  been  left  in  ignorance  of  her  sentiments 
when  next  they  were  alone  together.  But  now 
any  wish  of  his  was  sacred,  and  she  would  have 
been  too  tender  of  him  to  complain,  if  he  had 
brought  in  thirty  unexpected  and  unnecessary 
guests  instead  of  merely  three.  She  held  a 
hurried  consultation  with  cook  and  waitress 
to  adapt  the  dinner  to  the  circumstances,  then 
returned  to  the  drawing-room,  hardly  cheerful, 
but  entirely  serene. 

She  was  astonished  to  find  that  her  husband 
appeared  to  have  put  his  troubles  completely 
out  of  his  mind.  He  was  in  his  most  genial 
and  delightful  mood,  telling  his  best  stories 
and  turning  his  prettiest  compliments. 

Mrs.  Cartwright,  almost  silent  at  first,  was 
so  much  impressed  by  his  heroism  that  she 
began  to  rise  to  the  occasion  herself,  and  the 
dinner  went  off  with  positive  merriment. 

When  the  gay  leave-taking  at  the  station 
was  over  and  the  train  moved  out,  the  two 


78      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

girls,  sitting  among  the  flowers,  bonbons,  and 
illustrated  papers  that  had  been  showered 
upon  them,  grew  suddenly  grave  as  their 
eyes  met. 

"  Wasn't  it  heart-breaking,  the  way  they 
kept  up  for  our  sake  !  "  exclaimed  Sue.  "  I 
wanted  to  go  off  in  the  corner  and  cry." 

"  The  spirit  of  Sparta  still  lives,"  said  Bar- 
bara. 


CHAPTER  VI 

"  T  AM  glad  Elizabeth  is  spared  this,"  said 
the  Captain.  "  She  would  feel  it  very 
keenly." 

"  No  more  than  we  do,"  flashed  his  wife. 
"  She  could  stand  it  as  well  as  we." 

"  Perhaps.  But  it  might  be  better  for  us 
if — "  He  hesitated. 

"If  we  were  dead?  "  cried  Mrs.  Cartwright, 
finishing  the  sentence  for  him.  "Julius, 
you're  losing  your  nerve.  You  see  things 
out  of  focus.  A  man  can  be  disgraced  only 
by  his  own  actions.  When  he  has  done  noth- 
ing wrong,  no  amount  of  persecution  can  really 
injure  him." 

"  It's  not  persecution,"  he  corrected.  It's 
misunderstanding.  But  that  only  makes  it 
more  hopeless." 

Sometimes  they  changed  places,  and  it  was 
79 


80      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

she  who  was  despondent,  and  he  who  was 
sanguine. 

"  They  must  vindicate  me.  They  can't  do 
anything  else,"  he  said  on  one  such  occasion. 

"Of  course,"  replied  his  wife,  moodily,  "but 
meanwhile  you  have  received  an  injury  that 
nothing  can  efface.  In  the  service,  perhaps, 
they  will  pay  some  attention  to  the  findings. 
But  every  paper  in  the  country  will  have  ref- 
erences to  the  court,  with  big  silly  headlines, 
and  how  many  people  will  understand  the 
circumstances  or  remember  how  it  all  turned 
out  ?  They  will  simply  recall  you  vaguely  as 
the  man  who  was  tried  for  something  —  who 
was  in  some  sort  of  trouble.  It  leaves  a 
smirch  that  nothing  will  wash  off." 

"  Well,  dear,  we  must  make  the  best  of  it. 
After  all,  what  I  care  for  is  my  reputation  in 
the  service.  I  am  not  much  interested  in 
either  the  makers  or  the  readers  of  news- 
papers." 

"  I  am,"  said  his  wife.  "  They  represent 
the  mass  of  our  fellow-countrymen." 

"  The   mass  of  our   fellow-countrymen  are 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    SERVICE      81 

not  especially  discriminating.  I  shouldn't 
care  for  their  praise,  Clara,  and  I  don't  believe 
I  shall  mind  their  blame." 

"  You  are  too  good  for  this  world,  Julius," 
she  cried,  with  sudden  warmth,  "  but  I  love 
you  for  it !  " 

At  last  the  day  came  for  the  convening  of 
the  court.  Mrs.  Cartwright  watched  her  hus- 
band dress.  His  frock-coat,  which  used  to 
fit  him  so  perfectly,  showed  numerous  wrin- 
kles. He  had  lost  twenty  pounds  in  the  last 
fortnight.  The  hair  around  his  temples, 
sprinkled  with  gray  before,  was  now  a  silvery 
white.  She  hooked  his  shoulder-straps  into 
the  catches  for  him  and  got  out  his  white 
gloves.  His  hands  trembled  as  he  buckled 
on  his  sword. 

"  Do  they  —  will  they  —  take  it  away 
from  you  ? "  she  faltered.  She  had  been 
wondering  all  along,  but  had  not  dared  to 
ask. 

"Hell/  No!"  he  burst  out.  "I'm  not 
under  arrest.  It's  not  so  bad  as  that" 

All  his  wife's    pleading   had  not  persuaded 


82      THE    SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

him  to  employ  a  lawyer.  He  proposed  to 
conduct  his  own  case. 

"If  this  were  a  civil  court,  where  all  sorts 
of  tricks  and  chicanery  would  be  used  against 
me,"  he  said,  "  of  course  I  should  have  to 
have  a  lawyer  to  fight  them  with  their  own 
weapons.  But  before  a  court  composed  of 
my  brother  officers,  there  is  no  such  need. 
They  are  in  search  of  the  truth.  The  truth 
is  what  I  want  known.  They  will  throw  no 
obstacles  in  my  way,  and  I  have  no  wish  to 
profit  by  technicalities." 

Captain  Cartwright  had  three  pet  aversions, 
—  politicians,  newspaper  reporters,  and  law- 
yers. He  was  utterly  unreasonable  in  his 
attitude,  but  of  adamantine  firmness. 

The  court-martial  room  on  the  second  floor 
of  the  Ordnance  building  wore  an  incongru- 
ous air  of  festivity  from  the  decorations  left 
hanging  on  the  walls  after  the  last  Friday 
afternoon  dance.  But  the  commodore  and 
the  two  elderly  captains  who  composed  the 
court  were  solemn  enough  to  restore  the  bal- 
ance. In  the  back  of  the  room  sat  half  a 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      83 

dozen  reporters,  —  "  like  buzzards  waiting  for 
carrion,"  the  Captain  said  afterward  to  his 
wife. 

The  slow  formalities  began. 

First,  the  court  had  to  be  cleared  while  the 
orders  constituting  it  and  the  accompanying 
instructions  were  read.  The  members  of  the 
court  found  the  wording  of  the  precept  and  in- 
structions rather  vague  ;  but  the  young  marine 
officer  sent  on  from  Washington  to  act  as 
judge  advocate  was  able  to  enlighten  them  on 
all  doubtful  points,  as  the  papers  had  been 
drawn  up  in  the  office  of  the  Judge  Advocate 
General,  to  which  he  was  attached.  He  had 
also  had  the  advantage  of  talking  over  the 
case  with  the  young  man  who  had  made  the 
previous  investigation,  and  he  was  willing  to 
share  all  the  information  so  acquired  with  the 
members  of  the  court. 

When  these  preliminaries  had  been  well 
threshed  over,  the  doors  of  the  court  were 
opened  again,  and  the  defendant,  the  stenog- 
rapher, and  the  reporters  returned  from  ban- 
ishment. Captain  Cartwright  waived  his  right 


84      THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE    SERVICE 

to  counsel ;  the  judge  advocate  read  aloud  the 
precept.  Captain  Cartwright  was  asked  if  he 
objected  to  any  member  of  the  court  and  re- 
plied that  he  did  not.  The  members  of  the 
court  were  sworn  by  the  judge  advocate,  and 
the  judge  advocate  by  the  presiding  officer. 
And  then  at  last  began  the  taking  of  testi- 
mony. 

The  first  witnesses  called  were  the  seven 
workmen  who  had  told  the  Department's  in- 
vestigator that  the  machinist  Klein  was  a  good 
man  discharged  without  cause  and  that  the 
applicant  Callahan  was  arbitrarily  and  illegally 
refused  work  when  there  was  a  vacancy. 
They  were  less  emphatic  now  than  they  had 
been  when  conversing  privately  with  the 
young  officer.  In  fact,  giving  them  credit  for 
entire  sincerity,  their  opinions  as  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  fellow-workmen,  their  descriptions 
of  the  manner  and  inferences  as  to  the  motives 
of  their  chief,  were  too  vague  to  produce  any 
conviction  except  that  they,  personally,  did 
not  like  Captain  Cartwright.  Cross-examina- 
tion developed  the  fact  that  most  of  them  had 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      85 

a  reason  for  this  hostility  in  having  been  rep- 
rimanded by  the  Captain,  and  the  others  ad- 
mitted somewhat  reluctantly  an  acquaintance 
more  or  less  intimate  with  John  C.  O'Meara. 

In  reply  to  questions  by  the  court,  these 
witnesses  testified  that  they  had  never  been 
asked  anything  about  their  politics  by  Captain 
Cartwright,  nor  had  they  ever  heard  of  his 
mentioning  politics  to  any  one,  nor  could  they 
of  their  own  knowledge  swear  what  his  political 
affiliations  were.  They  had  heard  he  was  a 
Republican. 

Klein  and  Callahan  were  next  put  on  the 
stand,  but  proved  nothing  beyond  their  per- 
sonal grudge  against  Captain  Cartwright.  The 
impression  they  made  for  frankness  and  man- 
liness was  not  especially  favorable. 

Then  came  testimony  to  show  that,  of 
sixty-five  men  discharged  during  Captain  Cart- 
wright's  incumbency,  forty-one  had  been 
Democrats  and  only  twenty-four  Republicans, 
and  that  of  a  hundred  and  seven  new  men 
taken  on,  fifty-nine  had  been  Republicans  and 
only  forty-eight  Democrats. 


86      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

The  Captain  listened  to  this  part  of  the 
testimony  with  surprise  and  disgust.  He 
was  learning  these  political  statistics  for  the 
first  time.  He  had  cared  no  more  for  the 
views  of  his  workmen  on  politics  than  for 
their  views  on  the  theory  of  atomic  weights. 
What  was  the  object  of  the  judge  advocate  in 
bringing  out  these  facts  ?  Was  it  conceivable 
that  a  Democratic  administration,  committed 
to  the  policy  of  civil  service  reform,  could 
sink  so  low  as  to  find  fault  with  him  because 
the  balance  of  numbers  happened  to  have 
fallen  in  favor  of  Republican  workmen  ?  Even 
if  they  wished  in  their  hearts  that  he  had 
manipulated  otherwise  (and,  really,  he  had 
thought  better  of  the  men  in  high  places), 
surely  they  could  not  openly  censure  him  for 
having  so  obviously  done  his  duty ! 

On  the  completion  of  this  testimony,  which 
had  dragged  along  through  two  days  and  part 
of  the  third,  the  judge  advocate  announced 
that  the  government  had  no  more  witnesses 
to  call. 

Captain  Cartwright  then  began  his  defence. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      87 

He  had  endeavored  to  secure  the  presence  of 
Mr.  O'Meara,  but  Mr.  O'Meara  had  declined 
to  obey  the  summons,  and  naval  courts  have 
no  power  to  compel  the  attendance  of  civilian 
witnesses.  The  Captain's  having  insisted  on 
leaving  the  door  open  into  the  adjoining  room 
during  O'Meara's  call  —  which  had  been  a 
matter  of  instinct  with  him  rather  than  of 
precaution  —  proved  most  fortunate,  for  the 
clerks  in  the  next  room  were  able  to  give  a 
very  clear  account  of  the  whole  conversation. 

This  testimony  was  not  admitted  without 
an  objection  by  the  judge  advocate. 

"  It's  not  pertinent  to  the  case,"  he  said. 

"  It  is  extremely  pertinent,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain, "  for  it  shows  the  source  of  the  charges 
made  against  me  and  the  malice  underlying 
them." 

"Do  you  mean  to  accuse  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment of  malice  ? " 

"  Certainly  not.  The  Department,  like 
myself,  has  been  victimized  by  the  machina- 
tions of  this  man,  O'Meara." 

"  Are  you  prepared  to  prove  that  assertion  ?  " 


88      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  haven't  all  the  connecting  links  of  evi- 
dence. 'I  am  not  a  detective  and  have  em- 
ployed none.  But  the  inference  is  clear  from 
the  facts  I  am  presenting." 

"Inference  is  not  evidence,"  observed  the 
judge  advocate  pompously,  and  no  one  felt 
called  upon  to  dispute  his  oracular  statement. 

The  court  was  cleared  to  deliberate  on  the 
question  raised  and  decided  to  admit  the 
evidence. 

Captain  Cartwright  then  took  the  stand  in 
his  own  behalf  and  gave  an  account  of  his 
efforts  to  administer  his  department  justly 
and  impartially,  describing  the  precautions 
taken  to  ascertain  the  individual  fitness  of  the 
men  for  their  work,  his  method  of  advanc- 
ing the  most  competent,  and  the  considera- 
tions which  guided  him  in  discharging  the 
unworthy.  Coming  down  to  particulars,  he 
detailed  the  circumstances  attending  the  dis- 
missal of  Klein  and  the  non-employment  of 
Callahan. 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  narrative  the  judge 
advocate  took  up  a  long  list  of  questions  for 


"THE  JUDGE-ADVOCATE  TOOK   up  A  LONG  LIST  OF  QUESTIONS." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      89 

the  cross-examination,  asking  first  in  a  per- 
functory way :  — 

"  You  are  a  Republican,  I  believe,  Captain  ?  " 

"  No,  I  am  not  a  Republican,"  he  replied 
quietly. 

The  effect  of  this  statement  was  electrical. 
The  members  of  the  court  straightened  up, 
the  judge  advocate  became  animated,  the  re- 
porters on  the  back  seats  craned  their  necks 
forward  eagerly. 

"  Are  you  a  Democrat  ? " 

"Yes." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  one  ? " 

"All  my  life.  My  father  was  one  before 
me  —  a  war  Democrat,  of  course,  not  a  Cop- 
perhead." 

"  You  have  always  voted  the  Democratic 
ticket  ? " 

"Always,  when  I  was  where  I  could  vote 
at  all." 

"  This  is  very  important,  Captain.  Why 
didn't  you  mention  it  before  ? " 

"  I  didn't  think  it  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  case." 


90      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  In  my  judgment  it  has  everything." 
For  a  moment  the  Captain  looked  at  the 
judge  advocate  dazedly.  Then  all  at  once, 
a  light  broke  on  him.*  With  suddenly  illu- 
mined vision,  he  saw  in  the  vague  wording 
of  the  precept  the  meaning  its  phrases  had 
held  from  the  beginning  for  the  judge  advo- 
cate and  the  court.  He  saw  farther,  for  he 
remembered  O'Meara's  charge  that  he  was  a 
Republican,  repeated  by  several  of  the  gov- 
ernment's witnesses,  which  he  had  not  thought 
it  worth  while  to  contradict.  He  saw  this 
charge,  in  the  light  of  which  his  alleged  per- 
secution of  Democrats  wore  quite  a  different 
aspect,  passed  along  in  garbled  ex  parte 
form,  through  Congressman  Smith  and  Sena- 
tor Flint,  and  whatever  other  intermediaries 
there  may  have  been,  till  it  reached  the 
Navy  Department.  He  had  supposed  that 
the  charge  against  him  was  one  of  poor 
judgment  or  of  arbitrariness,  —  a  dickering 
sort  of  charge,  equally  difficult  to  prove  or 
disprove,  and  requiring  cumulative  outside 
evidence  that  would  be  merely  opinion  after 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      91 

all.  Now  it  had  crystallized  into  a  concrete 
accusation  demolished  by  a  single  word  from 
himself.  The  utterly  unnecessary  character 
of  the  whole  proceeding  sickened  him. 

"  I  have  never  until  this  moment  under- 
stood the  full  meaning  of  the  precept,"  he 
said.  "It  had  not  occurred  to  me  that  any 
one  could  suspect  me  of  anything  so  absurd 
as  a  political  bias  in  dealing  with  my  men. 
Since  I  have  the  honor,  quite  accidentally, 
of  belonging  to  the  same  party  as  the  pres- 
ent administration,  and  since  the  two  men  I 
am  accused  of  discriminating  against  and  the 
majority  of  the  men  I  have  discharged  be- 
long to  the  same  party,  the  whole  fabric  of 
the  accusation  falls  to  pieces  on  the  spot. 
When  the  judge  advocate  has  finished  his 
questions  —  " 

"  I  have  finished  them.  The  rest  are  no 
longer  relevant.  I  will  turn  the  witness  over 
to  the  court." 

The  president  glanced  at  the  other  mem- 
bers, who  shook  their  heads. 

"We  have  no  questions  to  ask,"  he  said. 


92      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    SERVICE 

"Then,  with  the  permission  of  the  court, 
I  will  rest  my  case  here." 

"You  have  hardly  begun  on  your  list  of 
witnesses,"  suggested  the  judge  advocate. 

"  The  rest  are  workmen  from  my  depart- 
ment. I  never  liked  the  idea  of  bringing 
them  here  to  testify  in  my  favor.  It  didn't 
seem  to  me  either  dignified  or  proper.  But 
I  supposed  it  was  necessary.  Now  that  I 
see  it  is  not,  I  am  extremely  glad  to  omit 
that  part  of  the  testimony." 

"  That  is  a  question  for  you  to  decide, 
Captain,"  said  the  judge  advocate,  and  turning 
impressively  to  the  court,  he  announced  :  — 

"The  government  has  no  evidence  to 
offer  in  rebuttal,  and  I  have  no  remarks  to 
make.  The  case  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
court." 


CHAPTER   VII 

MRS.  CARTWRIGHT  was  aghast 
when  her  husband  told  her  of  the 
summary  way  in  which  he  had  cut 
short  the  proceedings  of  the  court  by  omit- 
ting the  greater  part  of  his  defence.  But  he 
waived  her  objections  aside. 

"  I  am  sick  to  the  core  of  it  all,"  he  said. 
"What  a  position  for  a  man  of  my  age  and 
rank  to  be  put  in,  to  have  to  call  the  men 
from  his  own  machine  shops  to  speak  a  good 
word  for  him !  I  couldn't  have  stood  it, 
Clara." 

The  findings  of  a  court  of  inquiry  are  not 
made  public  till  they  have  been  acted  upon 
by  the  reviewing  authority,  but  the  president 
of  the  court  took  occasion  to  say,  "  I 
wouldn't  lie  awake  nights  any,  if  I  were  you, 
Cartwright,"  and  the  Captain  hurried  home, 
to  share  the  good  news  with  his  wife.  She 

93 


94      THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

heaved  a  long  sigh  of  relief,  then  insisted, 
with  lightning  readjustment  of  her  outlook, 
that  she  had  always  known  it  would  be  so, 
that  it  could  not  possibly  have  been  other- 
wise, that  she  had  never  given  the  result  of 
the  investigation  a  moment's  thought,  but 
that  the  outrage  of  his  having  been  subjected 
to  it  remained  the  same. 

After  the  relief  of  the  commodore's  hint, 
the  action  of  the  Department  was  disappoint- 
ing ;  for  while  the  findings  were  not  disap- 
proved, the  assent  of  the  reviewing  authority 
was  by  no  means  so  hearty  as  the  "  full 
and  honorable  acquittal "  of  the  court  had 
seeme,d  to  call  for. 

Nor  was  this  the  end.  In  less  than  a  week 
Captain  Cartwright  was  in  receipt  of  an  official 
document  detaching  him  from  duty  as  equip- 
ment officer  at  the  Brooklyn  navy  yard  and 
placing  him  on  waiting  orders. 

"  This  is  more  of  the  work  of  that  wretch 
O'Meara!"  cried  Mrs.  Cartwright. 

"  Very  likely.    But  what  can  we  do  about  it  ?  " 

"  Go  tell   him  what  you   think   of  him,  at 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      95 

least,"  she  suggested.  She  would  have  greatly 
enjoyed  being  able  to  do  so  herself. 

"  With  all  due  deference  to  you,  madam,  I 
think  I  will  do  just  nothing  at  all.  It's  much 
more  dignified  and  at  least  equally  effective." 

"  See  Senator  Flint  and  Congressman  Smith 
and  find  out  if  they  really  are  acting  as 
O'Meara's  cat's-paws." 

"  Do  you  think  they  would  tell  me  ? " 

"  Perhaps  if  you  started  at  the  other  end, 
you  could  find  out  from  the  Navy  Department 
who  had  been  working  against  you." 

He  shook  his  head  wearily. 

"  No,  no.  We'll  go  into  retirement  and 
wait  till  the  clouds  roll  by.  If  the  powers  that 
be  should  blunder  into  a  war  with  England — " 

"  There  won't  be  any  war  with  England," 
asserted  his  wife,  "and  if  there  should  be, 
they'd  refuse  to  give  you  a  ship." 

The  Captain  bit  his  lip. 

"  God  forbid !  "  he  exclaimed  fervently. 

Throughout  the  whole  trying  experience  the 
outspoken  sympathy  of  naval  friends  had  been 
a  great  comfort  to  Mrs.  Cartwright,  proving 


96      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

once  more,  if  it  needed  proof,  the  high  esteem 
in  which  her  husband  was  held  by  those  who 
knew  him  best.  From  the  sympathy  of  out- 
siders she  derived  less  satisfaction ;  for  when 
it  was  not  undiscriminating  partisanship,  she 
fancied  she  could  detect  in  it  a  note  of  uncer- 
tainty, as  though  they  did  not  understand  the 
circumstances  well  enough  to  be  perfectly  sure 
the  Captain  was  all  right.  They  hoped  he 
was.  They  very  nearly  believed  he  was.  But 
how  could  there  be  so  much  smoke  without 
some  fire  ? 

Perhaps  what  pleased  Mrs.  Cartwright  most 
of  all  were  the  warm  words  from  clerks,  watch- 
men, mechanics,  laborers,  and  all  manner  of 
employees  in  her  husband's  department.  Since 
they  no  longer  had  anything  to  gain  from  his 
favor  it  seemed  obvious  that  the  affection  they 
professed  for  him  and  the  indignation  they  ex- 
pressed at  the  way  he  had  been  treated  came 
straight  from  the  heart. 

The  good  will  of  the  men  did  not  limit 
itself  to  words,  but  ran  over  in  hearty  offers 
of  assistance  about  the  packing.  All  were 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE       97 

promptly  declined  by  Captain  Cartwright,  who 
had  views  of  his  own  concerning  the  employ- 
ment of  government  workmen  for  personal 
ends.  The  long  establishment  of  the  custom 
of  borrowing  a  carpenter  and  a  sail-maker  to 
help  in  the  moving  did  not  lend  it  any  sanc- 
tion in  his  eyes. 

"  But  I'm  not  busy  this  morning,  Cap- 
tain," one  of  the  men  urged.  "  I  really 
haven't  anything  to  do  at  all." 

"  If  that's  the  state  of  the  case,  I'd  better  be 
laying  you  off,"  said  the  Captain.  "  There's 
no  use  keeping  men  on  the  pay-roll  who  have 
nothing  to  do." 

That  sort  of  thing  hurts  a  man's  feelings  for 
the  moment  when  he  is  trying  to  be  helpful, 
but  on  the  whole  they  adored  him  for  it. 

"  Mrs.  Cartwright,"  said  an  old  carpenter, 
confidentially,  "  me  and  some  of  the  men  will 
be  around  after  hours.  I  guess  the  Captain 
can't  say  nothing  against  that.  We'll  take  the 
measures  for  some  of  them  crates  and  boxes 
you  need,  and  we'll  fix  them  up  for  you  in  no 
time." 


98      THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  But  they  mustn't  be  made  during  hours," 
Mrs.  Cartwright  stipulated  dutifully. 

"  Oh,  no,  ma'am." 

"  And  they  mustn't  be  made  out  of  govern- 
ment lumber." 

"  No,  ma'am,  of  course  not." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  thought  it  better  not  to 
mention  these  plans  till  they  passed  into  ac- 
complished fact.  As  she  feared,  her  husband 
was  more  annoyed  than  touched  by  the  atten- 
tion and  was  only  half  convinced  by  the  ex- 
planations given  as  to  when  and  out  of  what 
the  boxes  and  crates  had  been  made. 

Meantime  Mrs.  Cartwright  ran  hither  and 
thither,  planned  and  packed,  mounted  step- 
ladders  to  take  down  her  well-loved  pictures 
that  she  had  gathered  together  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  wrapped  tissue  paper  around  the 
Captain's  cherished  books  and  fitted  them  with 
her  own  hands  into  the  boxes  the  men  had 
made  for  her.  When  and  where  would  she 
open  them  again  ?  Eternal  maddening  ques- 
tion of  navy  life  !  It  seemed  such  a  short  time 
since  she  had  unpacked  them  all  and  put  them 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE      99 

in  place.  They  had  supposed  they  were  set- 
tled for  three  years.  But — it  seemed  other- 
wise to  the  gods,  which  is  to  say,  the  Navy 
Department. 

Everybody's  allowance  of  belongings  was  cut 
down  to  the  scale  of  trunks,  except  Wriggles's, 
who  was  to  carry  with  him  crib,  bath-tub,  high- 
chair,  and  a  whole  cart-load  of  toys.  Wriggles 
was  a  privileged  character.  It  was  a  relief 
when  the  hideous  upheaval  time  was  over, 
boxes,  crates,  and  barrels  all  stored  away,  and 
Captain  and  Mrs.  Cartwright,  Wriggles,  and 
his  nurse,  established  in  the  three  rooms  at  a 
quiet  hotel  on  Gramercy  Park,  which  were  all 
their  reduced  income  could  compass. 

Gramercy  Park  has  been  invaded  by  board- 
ing-houses, but  still  carries  an  air  of  extreme 
respectability.  It  is  a  curious  little  overlooked 
spot  of  perfect  quietness  just  around  the  corner 
from  the  swirl  of  the  busiest  thoroughfares. 
The  high  railing  and  locked  gates  of  the  little 
park  help  to  keep  up  the  illusion  of  exclusive- 
ness.  Accessibility  had  been  its  chief  virtue  in 
Mrs.  Cartwright's  eyes  when  she  selected  it  for 


ioo     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

an  abiding-place.  She  had  no  notion  of  sitting 
down  to  brood  over  her  troubles  or  of  letting 
her  husband  do  so.  She  knew  that  action  was 
good  for  her,  and  she  felt  that  it  must  be 
equally  beneficial  for  him.  So  she  dragged 
him  around,  amiably  unwilling,  to  art  exhibits, 
Brooklyn  Institute  lectures,  and  even  to  after- 
noon teas. 

For  the  most  part  he  resigned  himself  with 
the  utmost  philosophy  to  his  wife's  enthusi- 
asms. But  occasionally  he  rebelled  and  insisted 
on  spending  whole  afternoons  in  the  less  stren- 
uous society  of  Wriggles.  If  the  weather  was 
pleasant,  they  made  excursions  to  Central  Park. 
If  it  was  stormy,  they  sat  in  front  of  the  fire 
and  sang.  They  always  began  with  rollicking 
old  salt-sea  shanties,  dating  back  to  the  many- 
storied  line-of-battle  ships,  and  invariably 
ended  with  the  mournful  Calvinistic  hymns  of 
the  Captain's  Sunday-school  days.  The  Cap- 
tain's fidelity  to  tune  was  sporadic,  and  Wrig- 
gles had  betrayed  no  symptom  of  a  musical 
ear.  But  these  were  mere  details.  Both 
grandfather  and  grandson  derived  the  highest 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    101 

satisfaction  from  their  duets,  and  if  the  people 
in  the  next  room  objected,  they  were  not  un- 
feeling enough  to  say  so. 

Sometimes  the  Captain  got  out  of  going  to 
things,  especially  teas,  by  the  simple  device 
of  taking  a  nap.  It  was  beyond  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright's  comprehension  how  any  one  in  good 
health  could  deliberately  lie  down  in  broad 
daylight  to  take  a  nap.  Six  hours'  sleep  out 
of  the  twenty-four  were  enough  for  her,  and 
she  could  not  see  how  her  husband  managed 
to  enjoy  eight.  It  struck  her  as  suggestive  of 
earthiness  —  the  only  thing  about  her  husband 
that  did  so  strike  her,  he  being,  for  the  most 
part,  in  her  eyes,  altogether  sublimated. 

By  tacit  agreement  the  Cartwrights  did  not 
discuss  the  injustice  of  which  they  both  felt  the 
Captain  was  the  victim.  His  wife's  compas- 
sion for  him  was  so  intense  that  she  could  feel 
the  bodily  pain  of  it.  Her  indignation  was  as 
fiery  as  ever.  But  both  indignation  and  pity 
she  kept  to  herself,  and  they  lived  out  the  fic- 
tion together  that  they  were  having  an  enjoy- 
able holiday.  Few  men  used  to  leading  an 


102     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

active  life  enjoy  a  prolonged  holiday  under  the 
most  auspicious  circumstances ;  but  when  it  is 
an  enforced  one  with  a  sting,  not  of  disgrace, 
to  be  sure,  but  of  official  displeasure  attached, 
it  becomes  a  very  serious  trial. 

The  change  from  shore  duty  to  waiting 
orders  produced,  of  course,  a  notable  shrinkage 
of  the  Captain's  income.  In  comparison  with 
the  slur  of  being  laid  on  the  shelf,  both  he  and 
his  wife  regarded  the  purely  material  annoyance 
of  doing  without  things  as  a  minor  matter. 
They  had  not  been  rich  before,  and  they  were 
not  suffering  for  essentials  now ;  but  the  sud- 
den lopping  off  of  pleasant  superfluities  and 
the  necessity  of  counting  pennies  where  before 
they  had  only  counted  dimes  was,  with  all 
allowance  for  high-minded  philosophy,  harass- 
ing. 

One  day  the  mail  brought  a  letter  from  a 
man  in  New  Hampshire  who  owned  a  farm 
next  to  a  small  patch  of  woodland  that  belonged 
to  Captain  Cartwright.  He  said  he  wished  to 
increase  his  farm  in  that  direction  and  offered  the 
Captain  twenty-five  dollars  an  acre  for  his  land. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    103 

"  How  fortunate  that  is  ! "  cried  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright,  who  was  patiently  wearing  her  last 
year's  bonnet  without  a  word  of  complaint. 
"  There  couldn't  be  a  time  when  a  little  extra 
money  would  come  in  handier." 

The  Captain  did  not  know  about  the  bon- 
net. His  wife  always  looked  beautiful  to  his 
eyes,  whatever  she  had  on.  He  knew  the 
lining  of  his  overcoat  was  worn,  and  that  he 
had  resigned  from  his  club  because  he  could 
not  afford  to  pay  the  dues,  but  those  were 
his  own  affairs. 

"  It  would  be  convenient,  but  I  can't  sell 
that  bit  of  land,  Clara.  It  came  to  me  from 
my  mother,  you  know.  It's  been  in  the  fam- 
ily for  more  than  two  hundred  years." 

Mrs.  Cartwright's  face  fell. 

"  I  think  I  should  waive  the  sentiment  if 
the  land  were  mine.  You  have  never  seen  it, 
have  you  ?  " 

"  Not  that  I  remember.  I  may  have  seen 
it  as  a  boy." 

"  You  never  expect  to  visit  it  or  build  on  it 
or  anything  of  that  sort,  do  you  ?  " 


104    THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  No,  but  I  shouldn't  like  to  sell  it,  Clara." 

"  Oh,  if  you  feel  that  way  about  it,  of  course, 
dear,"  she  said,  with  the  faintest  of  sighs,  "  we 
are  no  worse  off  than  before  you  got  the  letter." 

So  the  Captain  sat  down  and  wrote  to  the 
man  that  for  reasons  of  sentiment  —  he  stated 
what  they  were  —  he  did  not  wish  to  sell  his 
land.  The  man  replied,  giving  various  per- 
sonal details  and  explaining  how  important  it 
was  for  him  to  enlarge  his  farm  and  how 
the  Captain's  was  the  only  land  available,  ask- 
ing him  to  take  the  matter  into  further  consid- 
eration, and  ending  by  offering  him  thirty 
dollars  an  acre. 

After  reading  this  letter,  Captain  Cartwright 
handed  it  without  comment  to  his  wife. 

She  read  it  and  prudently  said  nothing,  but 
looked  at  him  with  interrogation  in  her  eyes. 

He  was  obviously  pondering.  Finally  the 
result  came  out. 

"  I  suppose  it's  that  man's  whole  life,  and 
it's  only  a  bit  of  sentiment  by  the  wayside  with 
me.  It  seems  rather  hoggish  to  stand  in  his 
way  like  that.  I  believe  I'll  let  him  have  it." 


105 

"  I  think  you're  right,"  agreed  his  wife,  try- 
ing not  to  look  too  much  pleased. 

"  But,  of  course,  I  can't  take  the  thirty  dol- 
lars an  acre.  He  would  think  I  had  professed 
all  that  sentiment  about  the  ancestral  land  and 
the  inheritance  from  my  mother  just  to  get  a 
bigger  price." 

"He  won't  appreciate  the  delicacy  of  your 
feelings  in  declining  it,  dear.  He'll  simply 
regard  you  as  an  escaped  lunatic." 

"  Perhaps.  But  I  should  prefer  that  to  the 
other  horn  of  the  dilemma.  I  shall  tell  him  he 
can  have  it  at  twenty-five  dollars  an  acre." 

"  Why  not  say  for  nothing,  as  it's  all  pure 
benevolence  ?  " 

"  I  don't  wish  to  pauperize  the  man." 

"  Thank  Heaven  for  that !  "  muttered  his 
wife.  Then  she  softened  and  went  over  and 
kissed  him,  taking  his  face  between  her  hands. 
There  must  have  been  moisture  in  her  eyes  to 
make  them  shine  so.  "  You  are  the  dearest 
old  goose  in  the  world,"  she  said. 

When  the  money  came,  Captain  Cartwright 
could  not  bear  to  use  it  for  current  expenses. 


106     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

He  felt  that  he  wished  to  see  this  small  ances- 
tral inheritance  embodied  in  some  concrete  im- 
perishable form,  and  he  wished  also  to  lay  it  at 
the  feet  of  his  wife.  It  was  not  often  that  he 
was  able  to  make  her  a  present  which  he  felt  to 
be  worthy  of  her.  So  he  took  his  converted 
acres  around  to  Tiffany's  and  turned  them  into 
a  ring,  an  opal  set  with  diamonds,  which  he 
brought  home  in  high  spirits  and  presented, 
with  the  prettiest  of  speeches,  to  his  wife. 

Heroically  she  stifled  the  thought  of  the 
last  year's  bonnet's  growing  archaism  and 
thanked  her  husband  so  enthusiastically  that 
he  never  suspected  her  disappointment. 

"  Imagine  that  ring  inside  of  a  glove  mended 
at  the  finger-tips ! "  she  laughed  to  herself 
when  she  was  alone. 

Then  she  lifted  the  ring  to  her  lips  and 
kissed  it  passionately. 

"  There  are  things  in  this  world  that  are 
better  than  common-sense,"  she  said,  and 
meant  it. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  BOX  for  each  of  us  —  strictly  im- 
partial—  marked  c flowers'  and  per- 
ishable '  and  sent  from  New  York." 

All  this  from  Barbara  to  Sue. 

Sue  gave  a  happy  laugh,  as  she  pushed 
aside  the  portieres  and  looked  in  from  the 
next  room.  Her  eyes  danced,  the  warm 
color  deepened  in  her  face.  She  was  like  a 
little  child  fairly  aquiver  with  excitement. 
Barbara  smiled  at  her  indulgently. 

Sue  seized  upon  her  box  and  plunged 
eagerly  through  string  and  wrapping-paper. 

"  Violets  !  "  she  cried.  "  Oceans  of  them  ! 
Oh,  the  beautiful  things  !  " 

She  buried  her  face  in  the  fragrant  mass. 

"At  five  dollars  a  bunch,"  commented 
Barbara. 

"  Don't    be    sordid.      They  are    exquisite. 

But   I   can't  find  a  sign  of  a  card !     Hurry 

107 


io8     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

up  and  look  in  yours,  you  old  slow-poke. 
Perhaps  the  card  got  lost  out  of  mine." 

Barbara,  whose  chief  interest  hitherto  had 
been  in  watching  Sue,  now  obediently  opened 
the  other  box. 

"  Lilies-of-the-valley,"  she  announced.  "Very 
sweet  and  innocent  But  no  card.  He  wishes 
to  remain  anonymous." 

"  Oh,  how  absurd  !  " 

Sue  lifted  up  each  flower  separately,  looked 
over  the  boxes  and  lids,  inside  and  out,  and 
at  every  portion  of  the  wrappings.  But  there 
was  no  clew. 

"  It's  some  one  who  knows  us  both,"  said 
Sue,  with  thought-creased  brow ;  "  probably 
somebody  at  the  navy  yard." 

"  Yes,  I  think  so,  too." 

"  I  believe  you  know,  Barbara  ! " 

"Indeed,  I  don't.  I  can't  even  guess. 
But  this  much  is  clear.  Violets  are  for  love. 
It's  somebody  who  loves  you  and  doesn't 
want  to  hurt  my  feelings." 

"  Who's  having  intuitions,  now  ?  "  laughed 
Sue,  not  wholly  displeased,  for  she  was  wholly 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     109 

human.  "  Perhaps  it's  somebody  who  loves 
you  and  is  afraid  to  say  so,"  she  suggested. 
"  He  wants  me  to  speak  in  his  behalf,  while 
he  expresses  his  awe  of  your  ethereal  char- 
acter by  means  of  immaculate  lilies." 

"  There  never  was  a  naval  officer  capable 
of  such  complexities.  At  least,  we  didn't 
meet  him." 

"  Well,  he's  a  dear, « anyhow."  And  Sue 
took  another  long  whiff  of  her  violets. 

"  Perhaps  you  wouldn't  be  so  expansive  if 
you  knew  his  name." 

"  Probably  not.  That's  the  beauty  of 
anonymity." 

"  Perhaps  that's  what  he  counted  on." 

"  He's  welcome  to  his  triumph,  then,  see- 
ing that  he  is  necessarily  unconscious  of  it." 

"  Rather  a  subtle  sort  of  triumph  for  a 
blunt  seafaring  man." 

"  Perhaps  his  astral  body  is  with  us  now," 
and  Sue  blew  a  kiss  into  the  air  from  her 
finger-tips. 

"  Naval  officers  don't  have  astral  bodies," 
said  Barbara  with  conviction. 


no    THE  SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  the  girls 
started  down  to  New  York  to  make  their 
promised  visit  to  the  Cartwrights.  They 
intended  to  stay  only  a  week  and  would  have 
omitted  it  altogether,  as  their  prospective  hosts 
were  living  at  a  hotel,  but  Mrs.  Cartwright 
laid  such  stress  on  their  keeping  to  the  origi- 
nal engagement  that  they  feared  to  hurt  her 
feelings.  She  had  notified  all  the  girls'  friends 
at  the  navy  yard  of  their  coming,  and  the 
week  was  crowded  so  full  of  festivities  that 
it  had  to  be  stretched  into  two  before  Sue 
finally  started  on  her  way  to  California  and 
Barbara  returned  to  her  New  England  home. 

"  Did  you  ever  notice  how  friendships 
ripen  during  absence  ? "  mused  Sue,  coming 
home  from  the  Monday  afternoon  dance 
aboard  the  Vermont  a  couple  of  days  after 
their  arrival.  "  Now  you'd  think  that  we'd 
have  drifted  away  from  all  those  people  dur- 
ing the  months  we've  been  gone  and  that 
we'd  have  to  begin  all  over  again,  but,  instead 
of  that,  we  parted  mere  acquaintances  and  we 
meet  as  old  friends." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE    in 

"  Who  ?     You  and  Mr.  Fairchild  ?  " 

Sue  blushed  adorably,  but  more  from  ani- 
mation than  embarrassment. 

"  No,  you  stupid.     Everybody." 

"You're  so  expansive,  Sue.  No  wonder 
you  make  friends.  You  go  through  life  with 
all  your  pores  open." 

"And  you  go  through  it  with  your  shell 
shut  up  tight,  like  a  barnacle  at  low  water." 

"I  know  it." 

"How  was  Mr.  Ferris?" 

"As  inept  as  ever.  But  I  think  I've  set- 
tled him'' 

"  Why,  what  do  you  mean  ? " 

"  I  told  him  my  ideas  on  marriage." 

"  And  what  might  they  be  ? " 

"That  it  ought  to  be  a  mere  business 
contract,  that  sentiment  spoiled  it,  that  I 
wouldn't  marry  a  man  unless  he  was  very 
wealthy,  that  I  would  prefer  to  marry  an  old 
man  who  would  soon  die  and  leave  me  his 
money,  and  that  all  sensible  girls  felt  as  I 
did,  though  they  were  not  all  honest  enough 
to  say  so." 


ii2     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Sue  laughed. 

"How  you  must  have  shocked  him!" 

"  I  certainly  tried  hard  enough." 

"  You've  shattered  his  idol." 

"  I  hope  so." 

"You  little  wretch!" 

"  Heigh-ho  !  One  must  do  something.  I'm 
not  making  a  collection  of  scalps." 

Mr.  Ferris  was,  in  fact,  seriously  distressed. 
Barbara's  cynicisms  had  often  wounded  him, 
but  none  so  deeply  as  this ;  and  by  dint  of 
gazing  into  the  limpid  depths  of  her  eyes  and 
dwelling  on  the  cameo  clearness  of  her  prpfile, 
he  had  been  able  till  now  to  forget  them  more 
or  less.  But  this  —  this  was  unforgetable, 
unforgivable.  He  nursed  his  disillusionment 
in  silence  overnight ;  but  next  day,  when  the 
Duluth  came  in  from  a  cruise,  he  could  not 
forbear  telling  Mr.  McMasters  about  it.  His 
confidant  gave  him  no  sympathy. 

"  Your  literalness  will  be  the  death  of  you 
yet,  Ferris,"  he  said  gravely.  "  She  didn't 
mean  that.  She  was  joking." 

"  No,  I  assure  you,  she  was  entirely  serious." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    113 

"  Nonsense !  She's  not  that  sort  of  a  girl, 
—  not  the  least  in  the  world." 

"  I  didn't  use  to  think  so,  either." 

"  You  don't  want  to  think  so  now.  No  girl 
who  held  such  views  would  express  them." 

"  She  oughtn't  to  express  them  anyhow. 
That  isn't  the  way  for  a  girl  to  talk.  I  can't 
bear  to  hear  a  girl  say  such  things." 

"  Oh,  if  you're  discussing  the  good  taste  of 
saying  what  she  did,  you  must  form  your  own 
opinion.  But  you'll  be  doing  Miss  Thornhill 
a  great  injustice  if  you  suppose  those  are  her 
real  sentiments." 

Mr.  Ferris  shook  his  head  and  refused  to 
be  comforted.  He  called  at  the  Cartwrights* 
no  more ;  he  kept  away  from  the  dances  and 
other  places  where  he  was  likely  to  meet  them  ; 
he  moped  by  himself,  and  thought  up  bitter 
phrases  about  the  whole  feminine  sex. 

Meanwhile  Barbara  was  congratulating  her- 
self on  the  success  with  which  she  had  gotten 
rid  of  her  admirer. 

"What  have  you  done  to  Ferris?"  Mr. 
Me  Masters  asked  her. 


"  What  do  I  appear  to  have  done  to  him  ? " 

"  The  poor  fellow  is  in  the  depths.  You 
must  have  said  something  that  hurt  him  very 
much." 

"You're  assuming  a  good  deal,  it  seems 
to  me." 

"  I  didn't  mean  to  be  presumptuous." 

He  spoke  with  the  easy  assurance  of  a  man 
ten  years  her  senior. 

She  smiled  at  him. 

"  Not  that.  But,  for  Heaven's  sake,  let 
things  stay  as  they  are  !  " 

"  You  know  he  cares  a  great  deal  for  you  ?  " 
Mr.  McMasters  persisted.  R. 

"  Oh,  I  hope  not ! "  she  cried,  and  the 
shudder  that  passed  over  her  was  of  unmistak- 
able aversion. 

"  I  see,"  he  said  quietly.  "  I  won't  meddle. 
I  wasn't  sure  how  it  was,  you  know.  .  .  . 
Poor  devil,"  he  added,  "  I  suppose  this  is  no 
worse  than  any  other  way.  But  I'm  sorry  for 
him." 

"  Oh,  so  am  I.  My  religion  teaches  me  to 
be  sorry  for  everybody." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     115 

"  You  are  a  Catholic,  I  believe  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  And  is  Miss  Ballinger  a  Catholic,  too  ?  " 

"  Dear  me,  no.     She's  nothing." 

"  She  doesn't  strike  one  as  a  negative  sort 
of  person." 

"  Well,  a  heathen,  then." 

"Is  that  all?" 

"  Oh,  a  heathen  with  a  thirst  for  righteous- 
ness." 

"That's  something"  he  murmured. 

"  I  believe  they  used  to  call  her  at  college 
an  S.  A.  T." 

"Which  me  ins?" 

"Seeker  after  Truth." 

"  Wasn't  it  Lessing  who  said  that  the  pur- 
suit of  truth  is  better  than  the  finding  of 
it?" 

"  Great  nonsense,  whoever  said  it." 

"  From  the  standpoint  of  Catholicism  ? " 

"  From  the  standpoint  of  truth." 

Mr.  McMasters  felt  it  was  time  to  shift 
his  ground. 

"  It  was  at  college  that  Miss  Ballinger  and 


u6     THE    SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Miss  Cartwright  —  Mrs.  Whittemore  —  be- 
came friends,  wasn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  they  were  in  the  same  class." 

"  Were  you  in  it,  too  ?  " 

"No,  I  didn't  go  to  college." 

"Why  not?" 

Barbara  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  I  suppose  my  parents  thought  me  more 
deficient  in  piety  than  in  learning.  Anyhow, 
they  sent  me  to  a  convent." 

"Did  you  like  it?" 

"It  was  a  good  deal  of  a  bore,  but  college 
would  probably  have  been  just  as  bad  —  or 
anything  else." 

"  You  have  found  nothing  worth  while  ? " 

"  Nothing,"  she  said,  smiling,  and  without 
emphasis. 

"  How  did  you  come  to  know  Miss  Cart- 
wright  ?  She  never  went  to  a  convent,  did  she  ? " 

"  Oh,  no.  Ours  was  a  vacation  friendship. 
I  caught  Elizabeth  in  her  lighter  moments." 

Wriggles  emerged  from  a  corner  of  the 
room,  where  he  had  been  piling  up  blocks  so 
quietly  that  they  had  forgotten  his  presence. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     117 

"  Did  —  oo — know  —  my  —  lubbly  —  mud- 
der  ?  "  he  asked,  pausing  after  each  word,  and 
gazing  wistfully  at  Mr.  McMasters. 

"Yes,  Wriggles,  I  knew  her,"  he  said 
gently. 

"  Did  —  oo  —  know  —  my  —  lubbly  —  mud- 
der  ?  "  he  went  on,  turning  to  Barbara. 

"Yes,  dear,"  she  said  very  low. 

"  Why  do  ebbrybody  know  her  becept 
me  ? "  he  asked  next,  and  his  great  wonder- 
ing eyes  were  like  a  mourning  angel's. 

"Poor  little  man!"  cried  Barbara,  supremely 
touched,  catching  him  up  and  kissing  him. 
"  I  wish  we  could  bring  her  back  to  you." 

Wriggles  twisted  himself  out  of  her  arms. 

"  Oh,  I  don'  know,"  he  said,  with  entire 
cheerfulness.  "  Mollie  says  I  gets  ebbrysing 
I  wants,  'cause  I'se  ca  poor  li'le  mudderless 
boy.' '  (The  quoted  phrase  was  rendered  with 
great  pathos.)  "  Mollie  says  mudders  spanks 
zay  boys  and  makes  zem  mind.  .  .  .  P'waps 
I  wouldn*  like  zat  bewy  much,"  he  concluded 
contemplatively. 

"  Wriggles,"  cried  Barbara,  with  grave  voice 


n8     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE  SERVICE 

and  dancing  eyes,  "you    have   destroyed   my 
last  illusion." 

"  No  more  than  you  have  done  to  poor 
Ferris,"  murmured  Mr.  Me  Masters.  But 
Barbara  deigned  no  reply. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  Duluth  was  to  give  an  afternoon 
dance.       The     Cartwrights    and    their 
guests  were  invited  by   Mr.   McMas- 
ters  and  were  also   asked  to  stay  aboard   for 
dinner. 

Captain  Cartwright  begged  off  under  the 
rather  flimsy  pretext  that  somebody  had  to 
stay  at  home  to  look  after  Wriggles.  They 
did  not  urge  him,  for  they  understood  that 
an  afternoon  on  a  ship  might  have  more  of 
pain  than  pleasure  for  him.  Mrs.  Cartwright 
went  on  account  of  the  girls,  from  a  strict 
sense  of  duty.  Barbara  went  on  account  of 
her  hostess,  from  an  equally  strict  sense  of 
duty.  So  Sue  was  really  the  only  one  who 
bade  fair  to  get  any  enjoyment  out  of  the 
occasion.  Her  spirits  were  high  enough, 

however,  to  make  up  for  all  deficiencies,  and 

119 


120     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

she  ended  by  communicating  to  the  others 
a  certain  reflection  of  her  own  enthusiasm. 

The  Duluth  was  lying  out  in  North  River 
and  was  to  send  her  boats  to  the  wharf  at 
the  foot  of  West  Twenty-third  Street,  where 
the  guests  had  been  asked  to  assemble  at 
three  o'clock. 

The  steam-launch  had  just  filled  up  with 
people  as  Mrs.  Cartwright  and  the  girls 
arrived. 

"I'm  afraid  we'll  have  to  take  one  of  the 
other  boats,"  said  Mrs.  Cartwright,  a  little 
disconsolately.  She  had  visions  of  flying 
spray  ruining  her  only  good  gown,  and  had 
a  feeling,  moreover,  that  the  launch,  being 
bigger,  was  less  likely  to  be  run  down  by  a 
ferry-boat. 

"  Oh,  I'm  so  glad ! "  cried  Sue,  entranced. 
"  The  row-boats  are  so  much  prettier.  Just 
think,  Mrs.  Cartwright,  I  was  never  in  a 
man-o'-war's  boat  before  ! " 

Mrs.  Cartwright  smiled  without  enthusiasm. 

"You  don't  care  to  wait  for  the  launch 
to  come  back,  then  ? " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    121 

"  Why,  that  would  be  half  an  hour  ! " 

Sue's  tone  was  so  full  of  dismay  at  the 
possibility  of  such  a  waste  of  golden  mo- 
ments that  Mrs.  Cartwright  and  Barbara 
laughed  outright. 

The  naval  cadet  in  charge  of  the  cutter 
came  up  and  introduced  himself.  He  as- 
sured them  that  nothing  in  the  world  was 
safer  than  rowing  in  New  York  harbor,  and 
said  he  had  several  mackintoshes  in  the 
boat,  which  they  could  put  on  to  protect 
themselves  from  the  spray.  So  they  climbed 
into  the  stern,  enveloping  themselves  in  the 
big  clumsy  rubber  coats,  above  which  the 
girls'  laughing  faces  and  bright  spring  hats 
looked  comically  incongruous. 

"  Up  oars  ! "  cried  the  cadet,  and  at  the 
word  ten  white  ash  blades  rose  together  and 
were  held  rigidly  erect. 

"Shove  off!" 

The  apprentice  boy  standing  in  the  bow 
pushed  away  from  the  wharf  with  his  boat- 
hook. 

"  Let  fall !  " 


122     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Five  oars  to  the  right  and  five  to  the  left 
described  quadrants  in  the  air,  and  touched 
the  water  at  the  same  instant. 

"  Give  way,  starboard.     Easy,  port." 

Then,  as  the  boat  was  headed  around,  — 

"  Give  way  together  !  " 

The  oars  rose  and  dipped  in  perfect  uni- 
son, and  the  boat,  gathering  headway,  began 
to  cut  through  the  water  with  a  fine  effect 
of  strength,  —  the  primitive  strength  of  mus- 
cle, beside  which  steam  appears  a  vulgar 
parvenu. 

"  How  beautiful  it  is  ! "  cried  Sue. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  assented,  thinking  she  was 
speaking  of  the  river.  She  had  been  used 
to  men-o'-war's  boats  for  so  long  that  they 
had  become  to  her  a  mere  means  of  convey- 
ance. She  had  forgotten  the  picturesqueness 
of  the  sailors'  uniforms,  —  the  rolling  collars 
open  at  the  throat  and  the  floating  black 
silk  kerchiefs  knotted  below.  She  noticed 
the  men,  how  well  set-up  they  were,  what 
clean-cut  faces  they  had,  and  felt  a  pleasant 
thrill  of  pride  in  the  trim  ness  of  the  boat 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     123 

and  its  occupants,  —  the  pride  of  a  good 
housekeeper  looking  at  a  spotless  floor.  She 
was  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  service,  but  she 
had  lost  sight  of  its  aesthetic  properties. 

Mr.  McMasters  met  them  at  the  foot  of 
the  side  ladder  and  took  them  to  his  state- 
room to  lay  off  superfluous  wraps  and  re- 
adjust their  hats  and  hairpins. 

The  girls  glanced  around  the  room  with 
interest.  It  seemed  wonderful  to  them  that 
a  man  could  live  for  three  years  in  such 
narrow  quarters.  Every  inch  of  space  was 
utilized.  There  were  drawers  under  the 
bunk,  lockers  and  bookshelves  over  it.  The 
bureau  was  also  a  desk.  There  were  racks 
overhead  where  odd-shaped  tin  boxes  were 
stowed. 

"  That  one's  for  a  cocked  hat,  that  one 
for  epaulets,"  Mrs.  Cartwright  explained. 
"  That  long  flat  one  doubtless  holds  his 
c  special  full  dress '  and  '  social  intercourse ' 
uniforms.  They're  safe  from  mildew  and 
moths  that  way,  you  know." 

The    bunk     was    given    a    couchlike    effect 


124     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

by  being  covered  with  a  Bagdad  portiere  and 
heaped  up  with  a  variety  of  fancy  pillows. 
On  the  top  of  the  bureau  was  a  daintily 
embroidered  cover.  The  pincushion,  shav- 
ing-paper case,  laundry  list,  and  a  dozen 
trifles  showed  feminine  handiwork. 

"He  must  have  lots  of  girl  friends,"  said  Sue. 

"  *  Unto   him   that    hath    shall  be  given,' ' 
quoted  Barbara.     "  I  think  we'd  better  make 
him  another  pillow." 

"We'll  do  it!"  cried  Sue,  with  her  infec- 
tious little  laugh  of  delighted  expectancy. 

Just  then  Mr.  McMasters  came  back  for 
them  and  led  them  up  on  deck  again. 
They  had  been  aboard  the  Duluth  when  she 
was  lying  at  the  navy  yard,  but  she  was 
quite  transformed  for  this  occasion.  An 
awning  had  been  spread  over  the  deck  and 
the  under  side  of  it  made  gay  with  looped 
flags.  Bunting  was  everywhere.  Masts  were 
swathed  in  it,  gun-carriages  were  draped  in 
it,  hatches  were  covered  with  it.  The  flag- 
ship's band,  borrowed  for  the  afternoon,  was 
playing  an  alluring  waltz.  The  enlisted  men, 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    125 

not  allowed  to  come  abaft  the  mainmast, 
gathered  there,  watching  the  spectacle  before 
them  with  mild  interest.  At  least  there  were 
no  drills  for  the  afternoon.  In  the  space 
cleared  for  dancing,  a  few  couples  were  cir- 
cling around ;  while  groups  of  guests,  just 
arrived,  stood  chatting  with  the  officers  who 
had  invited  them. 

Mr.  McMasters  busied  himself  for  a  few 
minutes  bringing  up  one  officer  after  another 
to  introduce  to  Mrs.  Cartwright  and  the  girls. 
Then  he  asked  Barbara  to  dance. 

There  was  just  the  faintest  look  of  surprise 
in  Sue's  eyes.  From  her  kindergarten  days, 
she  was  used  to  being  chosen  first.  But 
she  did  not  grudge  Barbara  her  triumph,  and 
turned  with  perfect  sweetness  to  dance  with 
a  beardless  young  doctor,  "just  caught,"  as 
Mr.  McMasters  had  expressed  it  in  intro- 
ducing him,  from  the  medical  school.  Naval 
life  was  entirely  new  to  him ;  and  although 
he  tried  manfully  to  conceal  it,  he  was  tre- 
mendously proud  of  his  uniform  and  bristling 
with  the  importance  of  his  position. 


126     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

Presently  a  tug  came  alongside,  bringing  the 
guests  from  the  navy  yard.  Mr.  Fairchild 
was  among  them,  and  quickly  made  his  way 
to  Sue,  carrying  her  off  with  a  high  hand 
from  the  protesting  young  doctor.  And  then, 
somehow,  it  happened  that  nearly  everybody 
stopped  dancing  and  stood  watching  them. 
It  was  the  poetry  of  motion  incarnate.  There 
may  have  been  other  people  there  who  danced 
as  well  as  they,  there  may  have  been  other 
girls  more  beautiful  than  Sue,  other  men  hand- 
somer than  Harry  Fairchild ;  but  there  was 
no  other  couple  who  so  happily  combined  all 
these  qualities. 

"  Those  two  were  made  for  each  other ! " 
sighed  a  fat,  elderly  lady  from  the  navy  yard, 
standing  by  Mrs.  Cartwright. 

"  They  certainly  dance  well  together,"  re- 
plied Mrs.  Cartwright,  a  shade  impatiently. 
"  But  life  is  not  made  up  entirely  of  dances." 

"  Don't  you  wish  you  were  in  his  shoes  ? " 
asked  Barbara,  glancing  up  a  trifle  maliciously 
at  Mr.  McMasters.  He  was  gazing  intently, 
like  almost  every  one  else,  at  Fairchild  and  Sue. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     127 

"If  they  would  make  me  dance  as  well  as 
he  does,"  he  laughed  good-naturedly. 

"  Baffled  again  !  "  thought  Barbara  to  her- 
self. She  was  not  sure  whether  a  door  had 
been  shut  in  her  face  or  whether  she  was 
merely  gazing  at  a  blank  wall. 

All  at  once  Sue  became  conscious  that  they 
were  the  only  dancers  left,  and  that  a  hundred 
or  so  eyes  were  fixed  on  them. 

"  Everybody's  stopped,"  she  said.  "  What 
a  pity  ! "  And  she  gave  a  slight  preliminary 
drag  with  foot  and  hand  to  bring  him  to  a 
standstill. 

But  young  Fairchild  was  intoxicated  with 
the  joy  of  dancing.  He  was  a  Southerner 
and  loved  it  for  itself,  and  it  was  not  often 
that  he  had  such  a  partner  as  Sue. 

"  Don't  stop  !  Don't  stop  !  "  he  pleaded 
pantingly,  holding  her  a  trifle  closer  and 
whirling  her  across  the  deck.  "  What  does 
it  matter  about  the  others  ?  This  is  heaven. 
Don't  break  the  spell.  You're  not  tired  ?  " 

"No,  but  — " 

*  Never  mind,  then.     This  is  our  day,  you 


128     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

understand.  There's  nobody  here  but  us, — 
just  you  and  me." 

She  caught  the  spirit  of  his  enthusiasm, 
smiled  acquiescence  at  him,  and  they  danced 
on,  till  the  music  suddenly  stopped.  The 
spell  snapped  with  the  music.  Sue's  momen- 
tary exaltation  vanished,  giving  place  to  a 
wave  of  embarrassment.  But  there  are  vari- 
ous sorts  of  embarrassment,  and  Sue's  con- 
tained no  mixture  of  gaucherie.  It  was 
merely  a  pretty  confusion  emphasized  by  a 
lovely  flush  of  color. 

"  Oh,  but  that  was  fine  !  "  sighed  Fairchild,  in 
retrospective  rapture,  as  he  sat  down  beside  Sue 
on  a  flag-draped  hatch  and  fanned  himself  with 
his  cap.  "  Will  you  dance  every  dance  with  me  ? " 

Sue  laughed  at  him. 

"  I  mean  it,"  he  said.     "  Why  not  ? " 

"  Manners,"  objected  Sue. 

"  What  are  manners  compared  to  the  joy  of 
floating  through  ether  like  that?" 

"  Appearances  too,"  said  Sue.  "  They'd 
have  us  engaged,  if  we  danced  together  all  the 
afternoon." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    129 

"  Let's  be  engaged  then,"  he  suggested,  on 
a  sudden  impulse. 

Sue  laughed  merrily. 

"  Too  big  a  price  to  pay.'* 

"  Don't  laugh  it  off.     I'm  really  serious." 

"  So  am  I.  Never  more  so."  But  she  was 
still  laughing. 

Just  then  one  of  the  officers  Mr.  McMas- 
ters  had  introduced  came  up  and  asked  her 
for  a  dance.  She  rose,  Fairchild  fancied,  with 
alacrity. 

"  I    thought  this   was  mine,"   he  ventured. 

"  Not  this  one,"  she  said,  casting  back  "a 
charming  smile  at  him  as  she  moved  away. 

The  young  man  looked  ruefully  into  his 
cap. 

"  Now  did  I  propose  to  her,  and  did  she 
refuse  me  ? "  he  asked  himself.  "  Or  was  it 
all  a  joke?" 


CHAPTER  X 

SUE,"  Barbara  called  to  her,  as  she  was 
passing  by  with  her  partner,  "  do  you 
mind  if  I  tell  about  the  arbutus  ?  " 
Sue  stopped  and  joined  the  little  group. 
"  Mind  ?    No,  indeed,"  she  laughed  good- 
naturedly.     "  It's  the  most  foolish  little  story," 
she  explained   to   the    others,  "  but,  for  some 
reason,  Barbara  thinks  it's  funny." 

Barbara's  eyes  were  twinkling  with  mischief. 

"  It   was  while    I   had    Sue  up    home  with 

me,"  she  began  demurely,  "  that  I  found  out 

the  chief  ambition  of  her  life  was  to  see  trailing 

arbutus." 

"Well,  I'd  read  and  heard  so  much  about 
it,"  Sue  interpolated  apologetically. 

"  It  was  early  in  the  season,"  Barbara  went 
on,  paying  no  attention  to  the  interruption, 
"  but  I  was  determined  to  gratify  her  if  I 

130 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    131 

could.  We  hunted  over  the  hillsides  where 
the  snow  had  melted  off.  I  knew  all  the  good 
places.  And  at  last  I  found  a  patch.  *  Here 
it  is,  Sue  ! '  I  shouted.  f  Where  ?  Where  ? ' 
cried  Sue,  gazing  around  in  the  treetops. 
1  Here,'  said  I.  I  was  down  on  my  knees, 
scratching  away  the  brown  leaf-mould  with  both 
hands  to  show  her  the  plant  in  all  its  glory." 

"  Glory  !  "  sniffed  Sue,  contemptuously. 

"  There  were  the  thick  green  leaves.  I 
turned  them  back  and  showed  her  the  blessed 
little  pink-and-white  stars  cuddled  away  under- 
neath. £  You  don't  mean,'  she  gasped,  '  that 
that's  trailing  arbutus  —  that  poets  write  about 
and  all  Easterners  rave  over  ?  —  that  poor,  mis- 
erable, stunted,  insignificant  little  weed  ? '  — 
Tell  them  what  you  had  expected,  Sue,"  she 
broke  off  suddenly. 

"  Why,  of  course  I  had  expected  something 
magnificent,"  Sue  explained,  —  "  something  at 
least  as  big  as  a  peony  and  very  stunning.  .  .  . 
What  is  there  so  funny  about  it  ?  " 

Every  one  was  laughing  heartily. 

"  Now,  isn't  that  deliciously  in  character  ?  " 


132     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    SERVICE 

Barbara  commented,  with  the  proprietary  pride 
of  an  exhibitor  of  trained  canaries.  "  Could 
anything  be  more  utterly  Californian  ?  " 

"  The  quantitative  standard  !  "  Mr.  Janvier 
explained  teasingly.  "  They're  young,  though. 
Give  'em  time.  They  haven't  got  through 
marvelling  yet  at  their  own  astonishing  statis- 
tics." 

"  During  early  infancy,  it's  always  the  bulk 
of  her  offspring  that  the  proud  mother  boasts 
about,"  observed  Barbara.  "  Distinction  of 
character  is  necessarily  a  later  development." 

"  It's  the  superlative  form  that  counts  out 
there,"  Mr.  Janvier  continued.  "  I  remember 
seeing  a  railroad  extensively  advertised  as  the 
crookedest  railroad  in  the  world." 

"  But  it's  true,"  cried  Sue,  missing  the  point 
in  her  eagerness  to  controvert  a  supposed 
charge  of  exaggeration.  "  It  is  the  crookedest 
railroad  in  the  world." 

For  a  moment  she  looked  nettled  by  the 
renewed  merriment  that  greeted  her  statement. 
Then  her  face  cleared  charmingly. 

"  Jeer  away  !  "  she  cried,  as  her  partner  drew 


**  '  YOU    SEE    WE    HAVE    NOT    DRAPED    OUR    SEATS    WITH    NATIONAL 
FLAGS    TO-DAY.'  *' 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     133 

her  into  the  dance  again.  "  You  know  you're 
all  jealous  of  California  !  " 

"  You  see  we  haven't  draped  our  seats  with 
national  flags  to-day,"  said  Mr.  McMasters  to 
Mrs.  Cartwright,  after  he  had  found  a  comfort- 
able armchair  for  her,  and  she  had  settled  her- 
self among  the  red  and  white  bunting  that  was 
spread  over  it. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  laughed. 

"  I  don't  suppose  you'll  ever  forget  that, 
will  you  ?  It  was  a  joke  on  Elizabeth  and 
me,"  she  explained,  turning  to  Barbara,  "  which 
these  men  found  wonderfully  amusing." 

Mr.   McMasters  laughed  reminiscently. 

"  I  never  shall  forget  Miss  Elizabeth's  face 
when  it  dawned  on  her  that  she  had  to  pull 
all  her  elaborate  decorations  to  pieces." 

"  Elizabeth  was  to  have  a  little  lawn-party," 
Mrs.  Cartwright  continued  to  Barbara,  "  and 
she  asked  somebody  for  the  navy-yard  flags. 
It  was  when  we  were  at  Portsmouth.  Her 
father  would  never  have  loaned  them  to  her, 
but  the  other  man  thought  it  was  all  right." 

"  So  it  was,"  interpolated  McMasters. 


134     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Of  course.  And  we  worked  all  the  after- 
noon decorating  with  those  flags,  —  Elizabeth 
and  I  and  some  of  the  girls." 

"You  may  remember  how  scornfully  you 
declined  our  help." 

"  Why,  yes,  we  wanted  to  do  it  all  our- 
selves." 

"And  you  did." 

"Well,  it  was  pretty,  wasn't  it?" 

"  Indeed  it  was  !  " 

"  Oh,  we  worked  so  hard  !  We  didn't  just 
hang  a  flag  over  everything  in  sight  and  call 
it  done,  as  these  men  do,"  and  she  waved  her 
hand  around  at  the  decorations.  "  We  had 
a  color  scheme  and  a  drapery  scheme." 

"  I  should  say  you  did  !  " 

"  Well,  what  was  the  matter  ? "  prompted 
Barbara. 

"  A  mere  trifle  of  naval  etiquette  we  un- 
wittingly offended  against." 

"  Mere  trifle!  "  cried  Mr.  McMasters.  "  If 
you  had  plunged  us  into  war  with  all  the 
world  at  once,  would  you  have  called  it  a 
mere  trifle  ?  Why,  Miss  Thornhill,  they  had 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    135 

used  the  flags  of  all  the  nations  to  drape  over 
the  benches  that  people  were  to  sit  on,  and 
had  spread  out  one  of  them — I  won't  say 
which  —  for  a  rug  in  the  refreshment  tent!" 

"  Was  that  so  very  dreadful  ?  "  queried  Bar- 
bara, innocently. 

"  Dreadful  ?  It  was  unheard-of,  atrocious, 
unthinkable.  The  flags  of  other  nations  must 
be  treated  with  the  same  reverence  as  our  own. 
They  must  never  touch  the  ground.  They 
must  not  be  used  for  mere  wrapping  or  deco- 
ration. To  lean  against  them,  to  sit  on  them, 
and  —  worst  of  all  —  to  step  on  them,  is  a 
deadly  insult." 

"  But  we  are  sitting  on  flags  at  this  mo- 
ment," Barbara  protested. 

"  Signal  flags,"  said  the  young  man. 

"  Well,  my  dear,  we  had  toiled  all  that  after- 
noon, and  we  had  just  finished  and  had  barely 
time  to  go  in  and  get  dressed  and  eat  a 
hurried  dinner  before  the  arrival  of  the  guests, 
when  along  came  some  of  these  young  men, 
asking  if  they  might  see  our  handiwork.  And 
we  were  so  proud  of  it  that  we  let  them." 


136     THE    SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  And  a  good  thing  you  did ! " 

"  One  chorus  of  excited  shouts  went  up 
from  them.  f  Why,  you  can't  do  this ! 
You've  got  to  take  it  all  down ! '  They 
made  such  a  ridiculous  fuss  that  we  didn't 
believe  them  at  all.  We  thought  they  were 
just  envious  because  they  hadn't  had  a  hand 
in  it.  Elizabeth  ran  into  the  house  to  get 
her  father.  ...  I  wish  you  could  have  seen 
him." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  paused  impressively.  Mr. 
McMasters  chuckled. 

"  He  wasn't  excited,  was  he  ? "  asked  Bar- 
bara, incredulously. 

"  He  didn't  jump  up  and  down  and  tear 
his  hair,  if  that's  what  you  mean.  He  came 
out  smoking  that  brierwood  pipe  of  his.  He 
puffed  at  it  for  several  minutes  in  absolute 
silence,  while  he  looked  around.  We  thought 
he  was  admiring  it  all.  Then  he  took  out  his 
watch  and  glanced  at  it.  '  I'll  give  you  fif- 
teen minutes  to  take  everything  down,'  he  said. 
.  .  .  That  was  all." 

The  way  in  which  Mrs.  Cartwright  talked 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    137 

of  Elizabeth  was  a  source  of  constant  surprise 
to  Barbara.  There  was  no  suggestion  of  death. 
Elizabeth  might  have  been  in  the  next  room. 
Barbara  herself  found  it  almost  impossible  to 
speak  of  her  friend.  Something  caught  in 
her  throat  when  she  tried  to  pronounce  Eliza- 
beth's name.  But  Mrs.  Cartwright  talked  of 
her  quite  naturally,  without  hush  of  voice  or 
solemnity  of  manner.  It  was  evident  that  she 
did  not  propose  to  let  her  daughter  drop  out 
of  her  life  merely  because  she  had  passed  out 
of  sight  and  hearing.  Festal  occasions  seemed 
more  apt  to  bring  up  her  name  than  serious 
ones.  It  was  as  if  the  mother  wished  the 
absent  child,  in  some  mysterious  spiritual 
fashion,  to  share  the  family  pleasures,  —  as  if, 
perhaps,  without  this  inclusion,  to  take  part 
in  them  herself  would  be  a  disloyalty. 

"  It  is  beautiful,"  thought  Barbara,  "  but  I 
don't  see  how  she  does  it." 

»J»  sic  sfe  ***  •¥•  Jfe  «it 

The  dinner  in  the  wardroom  was  as  much 
of  a  novelty  to  the  girls  as  the  dance  on  deck 
had  been.  The  long  table  was  banked  with 


138     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

flowers.  Table  linen,  glass,  and  crockery  were 
decorated  with  the  anchor  of  the  navy,  and 
a  few  pieces  borrowed  from  the  cabin  bore 
the  eagle  of  the  nation  as  well.  There  were 
several  other  feminine  guests  and  one  man  in 
civilian's  clothes,  who  looked  positively  odd 
among  the  uniformed  officers.  The  strangest 
sight  to  Barbara,  the  noiseless  white-gowned, 
black-capped,  long-queued  Chinese  servants 
who  waited  on  them,  looked  familiar  enough 
to  Sue,  except  that  in  California  they  twist 
their  queues  around  their  heads  and  wait  on 
their  employers  bareheaded,  while  these  men, 
shipped  in  China,  would  never  have  dreamed 
of  such  a  breach  of  etiquette. 

The  talk  at  the  table  was  of  many  things 
and  many  places.  It  jumped  lightly  from 
Haiti  to  Samoa,  and  from  an  audience  with 
Li  Hung  Chang  to  an  interview  with  a  rebel 
general  in  a  seething  South  American  repub- 
lic. The  anecdotes  had  a  combined  flavor  of 
salt  and  saltpeter  that  tickled  the  palates  of 
the  guests  with  a  sense  of  the  unaccustomed 
and  the  picturesque. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE    139 

"What  a  life!"  sighed  Sue.  "Is  there 
anything  you  haven't  seen  and  done?" 

"  A  great  many  things,"  said  Mr.  Mc- 
Masters.  "  Your  life  would  be  as  novel  and 
full  of  interest  to  us  as  ours  could  be  to 
you,  —  your  life  at  a  woman's  college,  or  on 
your  brother's  ranch  in  Southern  California, 
or  studying  nursing  at  a  hospital,  or  keeping 
house  for  your  other  brother  in  a  Nevada 
mining  camp." 

"  How  in  the  world  did  you  know  all  those 
things  about  me?"  she  asked  curiously.  "It's 
almost  a  biography." 

"  From  Mrs.  Cartwright  and  Miss  Thorn- 
hill." 

"  I  didn't  know  they  were  such  gossips." 

"  You're  not  annoyed,  are  you  ?  "  He  was 
very  grave,  almost  apologetic. 

"  Oh,  no,  indeed  !  "  she  laughed.  "  But  you 
must  have  been  very  hard  up  for  something  to 
talk  about." 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  Cartwrights  spent  the  summer  at 
a  mountain  resort,  selected  for  the 
two  considerations  of  healthfulness  for 
Wriggles  and  inexpensiveness  for  themselves. 
The  Captain  made  a  certain  pretence  of 
trout-fishing,  but  after  one  or  two  unproduc- 
tive rambles  with  rod  and  reel  and  flies,  he 
announced  that  the  sport  was  not  what  it 
used  to  be  and  that  he  was  getting  too  old 
for  it.  Mrs.  Cartwright  understood  quite 
well  that  her  husband's  trouble  was  not  old 
age,  nor  even  the  depression  due  to  idleness 
and  official  neglect,  but  the  want  of  Eliza- 
beth, who  had  been  for  years  his  companion 
on  his  fishing  trips.  She  kept  her  diagnosis 
to  herself,  however,  and  merely  proposed 
accompanying  the  Captain  on  his  next  excur- 
sion. He  had  not  intended  making  another, 

but  acquiesced  from  politeness. 

140 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    141 

Mrs.  Cartwright  donned  a  short  skirt  and 
a  pair  of  heavy  boots  and  supplied  herself 
with  a  rod  and  reel  and  a  can  of  grasshoppers. 
She  scorned  flies.  Her  success  in  catching 
trout  put  her  husband  on  his  mettle,  and 
although  he  would  not  abandon  his  flies,  he 
also  made  a  very  fair  showing.  When  it  was 
lunch  time,  they  built  a  fire,  cleaned  their  fish, 
and  cooked  them  on  hot  stones.  Then,  draw- 
ing forth  sandwiches  and  a  small  bottle  of 
claret  from  the  Captain's  capacious  pockets, 
they  sat  down  to  the  most  delightful  repast 
they  had  enjoyed  for  years. 

The  stream  in  which  they  had  been  fish- 
ing gurgled  and  rippled  along  among  the 
boulders  at  their  feet.  A  slight  breeze  stirred 
the  leaves  over  their  heads,  which  shut  out 
the  hot  noonday  sun  and  veiled  the  glowing 
sky.  The  temperature  was  delicious,  —  warm 
enough  to  relax,  not  hot  enough  to  enervate. 
Bright-eyed  chipmunks  whisked  around  their 
feet,  fearlessly  eating  the  crumbs  that  were 
thrown  them.  Now  and  then  they  heard  the 
flutter  of  a  bird's  wings.  Myriads  of  worthy, 


142    THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

hard-working  little  ants  swarmed  through  the 
grass  and  up  the  tree  trunks. 

When  luncheon  was  over,  the  Captain 
pressed  the  tobacco  into  the  bowl  of  his  pipe 
and  looked  around  serenely. 

"  After  all,  it's  still  good  to  be  alive,  madam, 
if  we  are  growing  old,"  he  said. 

"  It  is  admirably  good  to  be  alive,"  she 
agreed,  "  and  we  are  not  growing  old  unless 
we  insist  on  having  it  so." 

He  patted  his  temples  and  shook  his  head. 
His  hair  was  almost  white,  although  his 
moustache  still  retained  a  portion  of  its  dark 
coloring.  The  effect  of  the  combination  was 
striking,  and  was  heightened  by  the  light  gray 
suits  and' gray  crush  hats  that  he  habitually  wore. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  extremely  proud  of 
her  husband's  good  looks  and  thoroughly 
enjoyed  the  admiration  he  excited  among  the 
matrons  and  spinsters  of  the  hotel  piazza. 

"  You  ought  to  be  consumed  with  jealousy, 
Mrs.  Cartwright,"  one  of  them  said  to  her 
coyly,  "  for  we  are  all  madly  in  love  with 
your  husband." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     143 

"  Oh,  I'm  quite  used  to  that !  "  laughed 
Mrs.  Cartwright.  "  You're  not  the  first,  and 
you  won't  be  the  last.  But  nothing  could 
please  me  more." 

"He  has  the  most  wonderful  eyes,"  ex- 
claimed an  unmarried  lady  of  angular  outline, 
looking  up  from  a  bit  of  embroidery  in  a 
frame.  "  They  seem  to  give  out  sparks,  and 
they  look  into  one's  very  soul.  It's  like  a 
flash  of  lightning  when  one  meets  them." 

"  It's  his  voice  that  chiefly  appeals  to  me," 
said  a  buxom  widow,  crocheting  in  the  larg- 
est and  most  comfortable  rocker.  "  It's  so 
sympathetic.  It  gives  a  deeply  personal  sig- 
nificance to  the  most  trivial  remark." 

"And  then  he's  so  dignified,"  chirped  a 
tiny  mite  of  a  hunchback.  "  The  habit  of 
command  clothes  him  like  a  mantle." 

Mrs.  Cartwright,  in  high  glee,  could  not 
refrain  from  repeating  these  things  to  her 
husband,  who  was  so  much  bored  that  he 
went  in  and  out  of  the  hotel  by  the  back  door 
for  a  week  and  confined  his  social  attentions 
thereafter  to  the  men  in  the  smoking  room. 


144     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

The  ladies  on  the  porch,  talking  over  his 
defection,  decided  that  Mrs.  Cartwright  was 
really  jealous  and  that  the  poor  man  was 
avoiding  them  to  preserve  the  peace. 

When  the  summer  was  over,  the  Cart- 
wrights  returned  to  Gramercy  Park  and  re- 
sumed the  wearisome  occupation  of  waiting. 
The  Captain  kept  himself  factitiously  busy 
by  writing  a  paper  for  the  Naval  Institute 
on  eighteenth-century  sea-fights  between  the 
French  and  English.  It  required  a  good 
deal  of  reading  and  gave  him  an  object  in 
spending  his  mornings  at  the  library. 

He  had  long  since  stopped  making  appli- 
cations for  duty.  An  officer  in  the  Bureau 
of  Detail  wrote  him  a  confidential  letter,  advis- 
ing him  to  wait  for  a  change  in  the  adminis- 
tration, since,  although  he  did  not  understand 
its  exact  source  or  nature,  there  was  evidently 
some  powerful  influence  at  work  against  the 
Captain,  preventing  for  the  present  his  assign- 
ment to  duty. 

Before  the  presidential  election  in  the  fall 
Mrs.  Cartwright  wasted  much  good  energy  in 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     145 

trying  to  persuade  her  husband  that  he  ought 
to  vote  the  Republican  ticket.  However 
unimpressionable  to  her  arguments  he  had 
seemed  before,  she  returned  each  time  to  the 
attack  with  renewed  confidence,  unable,  appar- 
ently, to  understand  how  entirely  it  was  a 
matter  of  sentiment  with  him  and  how  little 
logic  had  power  to  sway  him. 

"  Are  you  so  quixotic  as  not  to  hope  there 
will  be  a  change  in  the  administration  ? "  she 
asked. 

"  For  personal  reasons  I  hope  there  will  be 
a  change,  —  yes,  certainly." 

"Why  not  vote,  then,  for  the  side  you 
hope  will  win  ?  " 

"  One  has  no  right  to  vote  for  a  President 
of  the  United  States  for  personal  reasons.  I 
am  a  Democrat  by  birth,  bringing  up,  and 
present  conviction,  and  I  shall,  as  usual,  vote 
the  Democratic  ticket." 

"  Do  you  really  think  the  country  would 
suffer  from  the  election  of  a  Republican  ? " 

"  No." 

"  You    are    too    absurd,  dear.      You    know 


146     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

your  allegiance  to  the  party  isn't  the  result 
of  deep  thought.  It's  just  an  inherited  loy- 
alty,—  like  your  feeling  for  the  Congrega- 
tional Church.  The  party  principles  have 
changed  fifty  times  since  your  father  became 
a  Democrat.  You  know  you  don't  believe 
in  free  silver,  and  you  regard  the  present  can- 
didate of  your  party  as  a  demagogue." 

"  My  dear  madam,  he  is  a  demagogue,  and 
free  silver  is  rank  insanity,  and  if  I  had  no 
personal  interest  at  stake  I  might  be  a  bolter 
this  time.  But  under  the  circumstances  — " 

"  At  least  you  can  stay  away  from  the 
polls." 

"  No,  I  shall  vote  the  Democratic  ticket 
as  usual,"  he  replied.  And  he  did. 

The  evening  of  election  day,  as  Captain 
and  Mrs.  Cartwright  stood  among  the  throng 
in  Herald  Square  watching  for  the  returns, 
he  did  not  rebuke  her  enthusiasm  over  every 
Republican  plurality  that  was  posted,  but  he 
himself  said  nothing  till  the  election  was 
decided.  Then  he  murmured  a  fervent,  if 
inconsistent,  "  Thank  God !  " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    147 

His  wife  laughed  happily  and  pressed  his 
arm. 

"  You  see  my  vote  didn't  decide  it,  after 
all,"  he  bantered. 

"  So  you  think  you've  saved  your  cake  and 
credit  too  ? "  she  jeered.  But  she  was  too 
happy  to  insist. 

On  the  5th  of  March  Captain  Cartwright 
sent  in  an  application  for  the  command  of 
the  Idaho,  and  received  his  orders  to  her  by 
return  mail. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE  Idaho  was  a  new  battle  ship  shortly 
to  be  put  into  commission  at  the 
Norfolk  navy  yard.  Captain  Cart- 
wright  was  delighted  with  her.  He  personally 
superintended  the  finishing  touches  of  her 
equipment,  suggesting  improvements  here  and 
there,  watching  over  each  detail  lovingly.  He 
had  not  paraded  his  depression  during  those 
weary  months  of  waiting,  and  the  joy  of  a 
man  in  the  fifties  does  not  bubble  over  ex- 
pansively, but  it  pervaded  every  fiber  of  his 
being.  His  wife,  who  was  a  close  observer, 
heard  it  in  every  tone  of  his  voice  and  saw 
it  in  every  act  and  gesture. 

"It  was  all  very  fine,  rising  superior  to  un- 
deserved misfortune  and  resting  serene  in  the 
consciousness  of  virtue,  but  it's  rather  nice  to 

be  appreciated  again,  isn't  it  ?  "  she  said. 

148 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     149 

"  I  might  get  along  without  the  appre- 
ciation," he  commented  smilingly,  "  but 
not  without  the  ship.  After  all,  it's  my 
life." 

Wriggles  had  his  own  sources  of  pride  at 
this  happy  period,  for  he  was  fitted  out  with 
a  strictly  regulation  sailor  suit.  The  world 
was  almost  too  small  to  hold  him  when  he 
first  saw  himself  in  long  trousers,  laced  at 
the  back  and  nautically  flaring  at  the  ankles, 
a  blue  shirt  with  white-braided  collar  and 
wristbands,  and  such  fascinating  accessories 
as  a  lanyard  and  boatswain's  whistle.  The 
ship-ribbon  on  his  cap  bore  the  name  of  the 
U.  S.  S.  Idaho.  He  had  been  carefully  kept 
from  the  knowledge  that  his  clustering  curls 
might  in  some  quarters  be  regarded  as  effemi- 
nate. He  seriously  regarded  himself  as  one 
of  the  sailors  of  his  grandfather's  ship  and 
fraternized  with  the  rest  of  them  whenever 
opportunity  offered. 

"He  would  be  ruined  if  this  lasted  long," 
observed  his  grandmother,  "  but  it's  only 
for  a  few  weeks.  We  shan't  be  following 


150     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

after  you  from  port  to  port,  as  I  used  to  do 
when  Elizabeth  was  little." 

"  I  wish  you  would,"  her  husband  said, 
smiling  with  affectionate  reminiscence.  "  It 
was  very  delightful  to  find  my  wife  and  child 
in  every  port.  But  I  think  you've  earned 
the  right  to  take  life  a  little  more  easily  now." 

"Yes,  my  ship-following  days  are  over.  It 
was  a  hard  life.  But  we  had  a  good  time, 
didn't  we  ?  " 

"  Indeed  we  did,"  he  agreed  heartily,  then 
added,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  "And  you 
don't  know  the  bow  of  a  ship  from  the  stern 
yet,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Not  I,"  she  replied. 

"  Wonderful !  "  he  mused,  with  real  pride. 
"How  could  you  keep  it  up?" 

Years  ago,  thirty  and  more,  when  the  cap- 
tains of  men-of-war  and  the  admirals  in  com- 
mand of  squadrons  were  allowed  to  have  their 
families  live  on  board  ship  with  them,  there 
flourished  a  masterful  set  of  navy  women  of 
the  Old  Campaigner  breed.  They  knew  the 
name  of  every  part  of  the  ship,  knew  the  de- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    151 

tails  of  the  work  going  on  aboard,  called  every 
officer  in  the  service  by  his  nickname,  gave 
advice,  interfered  in  matters  of  detail  and  dis- 
cipline, and  even  occasionally,  it  is  said,  issued 
orders  to  the  officer  of  the  deck  and  called 
for  "  my  gig "  or  "  my  barge."  Rank  was 
the  one  thing  they  reverenced,  and  they  ob- 
served it  among  themselves  and  exacted  its 
observance  from  others  with  rigid  formality. 
As  a  protest  against  this  unlovely  type,  a 
coterie  of  younger  women  arose  who  went  to 
the  other  extreme  and  affected  an  ignorance 
about  ships  and  everything  pertaining  to  them 
that  seemed  at  times  too  complete  to  be  pos- 
sible. If  they  were  obliged  to  refer  to  the 
parts  of  a  ship  at  all,  they  made  a  point  of 
speaking  of  the  front  and  back,  the  right  side 
and  the  left.  They  spoke  of  going  upstairs 
and  downstairs,  of  floors  and  ceilings,  called 
the  masts  the  front  one,  the  back  one,  and 
the  one  in  the  middle,  and  described  the  yards 
as  "  those  sticks  going  across."  As  to  rank, 
they  were  so  utterly  unconscious  of  its  exist- 
ence that  they  spoke  of  their  husbands  as 


152     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"mister"  even  when  they  were  commodores 
and  admirals.  Yet,  human  nature  not  being 
altogether  consistent,  a  look  of  real  annoyance 
was  sometimes  discernible  on  the  faces  of  these 
good  ladies  when  some  poor  ignorant  outsider 
of  a  civilian  would  innocently  copy  their  man- 
ner of  speech  and  call  the  admiral  or  the  com- 
modore "  mister." 

With  the  present  generation  the  pendulum 
is  swinging  back  to  the  center,  and  the  attitude 
of  the  younger  women  toward  their  husbands' 
profession  is  much  more  simple  and  natural. 

Mrs.  Cartwright,  however,  had  started  out 
with  the  ultra-conservative  feminists,  and  she 
and  her  husband  were  loyal  to  the  traditions 
of  their  youth. 

When  everything  was  at  last  complete  on 
the  Idaho,  and  officers  and  men  were  installed 
aboard,  they  made  a  few  preliminary  trips  to 
test  their  engines,  and  then,  somewhat  to  their 
disgust,  received  orders  to  take  part  in  the 
patrol  of  the  Florida  coast,  to  prevent  filibus- 
tering expeditions  from  getting  over  to  Cuba. 
It  was  understood  that  the  assignment  was  only 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE    153 

temporary,  for  the  Department  was  loath  to 
employ  anything  so  expensive  as  a  battle  ship 
on  duty  that  could  be  better  done  by  a  light- 
draft  gunboat.  But  the  Springfield  had  broken 
her  craft-shank  and  must  go  into  dry-dock, 
and  there  was  no  other  gunboat  available  to 
take  her  place.  Yet  her  place  must  be  filled, 
convenient  or  not,  for  any  reduction  of  the 
patrolling  fleet  would  be  sure  to  be  misunder- 
stood by  Spain,  who  was  at  best  inclined  to  be 
sceptical  of  the  good  faith  of  our  government 
in  repressing  the  ebullient  sympathies  of  its 
citizens. 

"  Rather  unpleasant  duty  for  such  a  pro- 
Cuban  as  you,  Captain,"  said  a  civilian  acquaint- 
ance at  the  club. 

"  He's  not  so  much  pro-Cuban  as  anti- 
Spanish,"  broke  in  another  man,  who  knew 
him  better. 

"  My  personal  sympathies  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  case,"  said  the  Captain,  rather 
sternly.  "  My  duty  is  perfectly  clear.  I  have 
simply  to  obey  orders." 

"  I  suppose  you'll  look  the  other  way  when 


154     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

you  think  it  needful,  though,"  said  the  first 
speaker,  with  an  attempt  at  slyness. 

"Sir,"  thundered  the  Captain,  "you  are 
insulting ! " 

"  Oh,  come,"  protested  the  young  man, 
deprecatingly  doubtful  whether  the  Captain 
was  joking  or  in  earnest. 

"  Do  you  accuse  the  government  of  bad  faith 
in  its  dealings  with  a  friendly  power?  Do  you 
accuse  the  Navy  Department  of  trickery  ?  Do 
you  accuse  me  of  going  down  there  to  play  a 
part  in  a  farce  comedy  ?  My  orders  are  to  use 
the  utmost  diligence  to  prevent  the  escape  of  any 
filibustering  expeditions  from  the  district  under 
my  surveillance,  —  and,  by  God,  I'll  use  it! " 

"  I  meant  no  offence,"  the  other  explained, 
somewhat  bewildered.  "  I  thought  it  was  an 
understood  thing  that  the  patrol  was  for  polite- 
ness, not  for  business." 

"  It's  not  so  understood  by  mey"  returned 
the  Captain,  gruffly. 

"  Would  you  really  sink  a  vessel  full  of 
good  Americans  just  to  please  the  Dons  ? " 
asked  the  man  who  had  been  listening. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    155 

"Not  to  please  anybody,  but  to  obey  my 
orders  and  to  keep  the  faith  of  the  nation, — 
yes,  if  it  were  necessary." 

He  tossed  aside  his  magazine  as  he  spoke 
and  left  the  room. 

"  By  George,  I  believe  he'd  do  it ! "  said  the 
second  man. 

"  He'll  get  himself  into  trouble  if  he  tries 
it,"  muttered  the  first. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  coast  of  Florida  was  divided  for 
the  purposes  of  the  patrol  into  three 
districts,  of  which  the  southernmost, 
extending  around  the  bend  and  a  little  way  up 
both  sides,  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Idaho. 

It  was  weary  work,  the  Captain  wrote  his 
wife,  with  all  the  discomforts  of  war  and  none 
of  the  glory.  They  had  to  encounter  the  same 
difficulties  in  getting  coal,  provisions,  and  mails 
as  a  ship  on  blockade.  They  had  to  face  the 
same  monotony,  the  same  necessity  for  cease- 
less vigilance,  for  watching  night  and  day, 
night  after  night,  day  after  day,  week  in  and 
week  out,  with  never  the  reward  of  a  blockade- 
runner  to  chase. 

To  be  sure  there  were  occasional  conferences 
with  secret  service  men  and  information  given 

of    intended    expeditions.      But    though    the 

156 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     157 

Idaho  was  always  on  hand  at  the  appointed 
time  and  place,  the  filibusters  never  material- 
ized. Either  the  suspicions  of  the  secret  ser- 
vice men  were  unfounded,  or  the  filibusters 
had  a  sufficiently  well  organized  information 
bureau  of  their  own  to  be  always  warned  of 
the  Idaho's  approach.  Time  and  time  again 
the  little  comedy  was  played  with  no  tangible 
results  except  the  expenditure  of  large  quanti- 
ties of  government  coal.  At  least,  however, 
no  filibustering  expeditions  escaped  them.  If 
they  caught  none,  it  was  because  there  were 
none  to  catch. 

As  the  long  hot  summer  wore  to  an  end,  the 
ordeal  began  to  tell  on  the  health  and  spirits 
of  all  on  board.  They  suffered  from  lack  of 
fresh  provisions,  lack  of  exercise,  and  lack  of 
variety,  and  from  an  excess  of  watching,  waiting, 
and  sweltering.  Livers  and  kidneys  grew  tor- 
pid. Nerves  became  irritable.  Letters  were 
tinged  with  homesickness.  But  through  it  all 
no  one  saw  any  variation  in  the  Captain's  pa- 
tient, vigilant,  cheerful  self-control.  Early  and 
late,  morning,  noon  and  night,  yesterday,  to- 


158     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

day,  and  to-morrow,  he  was  always  the  same, — 
kindly,  considerate,  courteous  toward  the  well- 
intentioned,  uncompromisingly  severe  toward 
shirks  and  pretenders.  They  loved  him  in 
wardroom  and  steerage  and  forecastle,  —  all  but 
those  few  to  whom  he  had  shown  the  hard  side 
of  his  nature. 

At  last,  after  so  many  cries  of  wolf,  the 
animal  really  came. 

The  secret  service  men  gave  notice  that  a 
schooner  named  Bell  Buoy  would  run  into 
a  bay  on  the  east  coast  —  a  swampy,  desolate 
place,  twenty  miles  from  a  post  office  and  fifty 
from  a  telegraph  line  —  on  or  about  a  certain 
date,  to  take  aboard  a  party  of  filibusters  and  a 
cargo  of  arms  and  ammunition. 

Now  this  was  a  situation  requiring  delicate 
handling.  Captain  Cartwright  revolved  the  cir- 
cumstances very  carefully  in  his  mind.  If  he 
intercepted  the  Bell  Buoy  before  she  reached 
her  destination,  she  would  have  nothing  in- 
criminating aboard,  and  he  could  not  hold  her. 
He  could  not  lie  off  the  coast  and  watch  till 
she  came  out,  for  obviously  if  he  could  see  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    159 

Bell  Buoy  the  Bell  Buoy  could  see  the  Idaho 
and  would  not  put  to  sea.  On  the  other  hand 
he  had  no  means  of  knowing  in  what  direction 
or  at  what  time  the  schooner  would  sail,  and  if 
he  kept  out  of  sight  he  might  miss  her  alto- 
gether. He  could  afford,  however,  to  give  her 
a  considerable  start  and  still  be  sure  of  catching 
her,  for  although  she  was  known  to  be  a  fast 
sailer,  she  could  hardly  be  a  match  for  a  sev- 
enteen-knot  battle  ship. 

These  being  the  conditions  of  the  problem, 
the  Captain  soon  worked  out  a  solution.  He 
so  timed  his  arrival  off  the  entrance  of  the  bay 
that  if  the  Bell  Buoy  carried  out  the  plans 
stated  by  the  Treasury  men,  she  would  be  in- 
side taking  on  her  cargo.  He  kept  far  enough 
offshore  to  be  out  of  sight,  for  he  felt  sure  that 
if  the  filibusters  were  there,  they  would  maintain 
a  lookout. 

Just  at  sunset  the  navigator,  with  an  ensign 
and  a  dozen  men,  climbed  down  the  ladder  into 
the  steam-launch  and  set  out  for  shore.  They 
carried  no  lights  and  calculated  to  make  the 
coast  several  miles  south  of  the  harbor.  Their 


i6o     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

finding  the  ship  again  was  to  be  a  matter  of 
accurate  steering,  as  it  was  impossible  for  the 
Idaho  to  make  any  signals  serviceable  to  the 
launch  which  would  not  also  betray  her  pres- 
ence to  the  filibusters. 

An  eighteen-mile  trip  on  the  open  sea  in  a 
little  steam-launch  is  not  the  most  delightful 
thing  in  the  world,  but  that  was  merely  an 
incident.  They  made  the  coast  and  steamed 
north  along  it,  carefully  inspecting  its  configu- 
ration by  the  starlight  and  the  waning  moon. 
They  crossed  the  entrance  to  the  bay  while  the 
moon  was  under  a  cloud.  A  little  to  the  north 
they  landed  the  ensign  and  a  quartermaster, 
with  instructions  to  find  out  whether  the  Bell 
Buoy  was  inside  or  not,  and  to  report  at  the 
same  spot  as  soon  as  it  was  dark  the  following 
evening.  The  two  scouts  were  given  twenty- 
four  hours'  rations  of  a  sort  that  required  no 
cooking,  and  the  launch  proceeded  up  the 
coast.  A  spit  of  land,  densely  wooded,  run- 
ning well  out  into  the  sea  a  couple  of  miles 
north,  proved  to  be  just  what  they  were  in 
search  of,  as  it  commanded  a  good  view  of  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     161 

harbor  entrance  and  at  the  same  time  gave 
them  a  chance  to  hide  the  steam-launch  and 
themselves  before  daybreak. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  not  the 
first  time,  but  the  fifth  or  sixth,  that  they  had 
done  this  sort  of  thing  in  the  past  three  months, 
and  that  they  had  no  reason  to  suppose  the 
last  report  any  more  authentic  than  the  others. 

The  next  night,  on  calling  for  the  scouts, 
they  learned,  to  their  great  surprise,  that  they 
had  at  last  treed  their  game.  A  schooner  in 
every  way  answering  the  description  of  the 
Bell  Buoy  was  lying  concealed  up  a  creek,  and 
there  were  evidences  of  great  and  abnormal 
activity  around  her. 

Once  more  they  returned  to  the  point  where 
they  had  spent  the  previous  day,  landed  a 
petty  officer,  a  couple  of  men,  and  some  sup- 
plies, and  then  started  with  all  speed  for  the 
ship.  They  spent  several  hours  searching  for 
her,  but  at  last  made  her  out  and  got  aboard 
soon  after  sunrise,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  Cap- 
tain, who  was  anxiously  awaiting  their  report. 

During  the  day  the  launch  was  stocked  with 


M 


162     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

a  week's  provisions,  and  at  dusk-  set  out  once 
more  for  shore,  heading  toward  the  spit  where 
the  others  had  been  left  behind  to  keep  watch. 
Here  they  hid  the  launch  behind  the  mangrove 
bushes,  made  a  camp,  and  settled  down  to 
keeping  a  day-and-night  watch  for  the  coming 
out  of  the  Bell  Buoy. 

The  officer  put  in  charge  of  the  expedi- 
tion was  Mr.  Ferris,  who  had  recently  been 
detached  from  the  Brooklyn  navy  yard  and 
ordered  to  the  Idaho.  The  Captain's  reasons 
for  selecting  him  were  set  forth  very  lucidly 
in  his  daily  letter  to  his  wife,  —  a  letter  fast 
assuming  the  proportions  of  a  journal,  it  had 
been  so  long  since  there  had  been  a  chance 
to  send  mail.  It  is  not  always  wise  for  a 
man  to  explain  his  reasons  to  his  wife,  but 
Captain  Cartwright  knew  by  long  experience 
that  the  discretion  of  his  could  be  trusted. 

"  Ferris  is  not  brilliant,"  he  wrote,  "  but 
he  has  the  faithfulness  and  the  pugnacity  of 
a  bulldog.  He  will  never  relax  his  watch 
on  that  harbor  entrance,  and  when  the  Bell 
Buoy  comes  out,  nothing  in  heaven  or  hell 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     163 

—  certainly  no  condition  of  wind  or  water  — 
will  keep  him  from  coming  to  tell  me  of 
it." 

It  turned  out  even  so.  Four  days  later, 
on  a  bleak,  windy  morning,  with  a  choppy 
sea  running,  a  puff  of  smoke  was  detected 
rising  out  of  the  hollow  of  the  waves. 

"  The  officer  of  the  deck  reports  the 
steam-launch  returning  to  the  ship,  sir," 
said  the  orderly,  with  a  properly  wooden 
salute. 

Captain  Cartwright  picked  up  his  cap  and 
sauntered  out  on  deck,  concealing  the  anxiety 
he  felt  for  the  frail  craft  laboring  in  the 
trough  of  the  sea. 

"  Run  down  as  close  as  you  can  to  her," 
he  said  to  the  officer  of  the  deck,  "and  tell 
the  chief  engineer  to  spread  his  fires.  We 
are  probably  in  for  a  chase." 

The  disproportionate  cloud  of  fierce  black 
smoke  from  the  steam-launch  betrayed  the 
violent  efforts  made  to  force  her  speed,  yet 
her  progress  was  very  slow.  Through  the 
glasses  levelled  on  her  it  was  presently  seen 


1 64     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

that  all  hands  were  busy  bailing.  She  was 
tossing  about  like  a  cork.  It  seemed  a 
miracle  that  she  was  not  swamped. 

As  soon  as  they  could  make  out  the  tones 
of  his  powerful  voice  shouting  through  a 
megaphone,  Mr.  Ferris  delivered  himself  of 
his  information. 

"She  got  out  of  the  harbor  at  6.15  this 
morning  and  headed  to  the  southward.  Bet- 
ter not  stop  to  pick  us  up.  You  might 
miss  her.  We're  all  right." 

But  the  Captain  did  stop  to  pick  them 
up,  —  no  easy  feat  with  the  sea  that  was 
running,  as  there  was  great  danger  of  the 
launch  being  crushed  against  the  side  of  the 
rolling  battle  ship.  It  was  safely  accomplished, 
however,  and  the  drenched,  exhausted,  shiv- 
ering men  who  were  hoisted  on  board  were 
served  four  fingers  of  rum  apiece  by  the 
doctor's  orders. 

"  Ferris,"  said  a  young  officer,  who  had 
been  securing  the  launch  in  her  cradle, 
"  what  in  the  name  of  common  sense  pos- 
sessed you  to  tell  the  skipper  to  leave  you 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    165 

behind  ?  You  hadn't  half  enough  coal  to 
get  you  back  to  shore." 

"  I  know,"  said  Ferris,  apologetically,  "  but 
we  could  have  rigged  a  sea-anchor  to  keep 
her  head  to  the  wind,  and  sooner  or  later 
something  would  have  come  along  and 
picked  us  up." 

In  the  course  of  time  this  story  reached 
the  Captain's  ears. 

"Heroism  and  idiocy  are  singularly  alike 
at  times,"  he  said ;  but  his  manner  to  young 
Ferris  was  notably  kindly  thereafter. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

AS   soon    as    the    launch   and    its   occu- 
pants   were     taken     on     board,    the 
Idaho  was   headed   to    intercept    the 
Bell    Buoy.       Lookouts    were     stationed     at 
the     mastheads.       Down     below     fires     were 
being    cleaned    of   ashes,  fed    with    coal,    and 
roused    to    fury  by  the  fierce  wind  storm  of 
forced  draught. 

The  Idaho  had  been  running  at  ever 
increasing  speed  for  a  couple  of  hours  when 
a  sailing  vessel  was  reported  hull  down  half 
a  point  on  the  port  bow.  All  hands  gath- 
ered on  deck  to  watch  the  chase.  After  the 
monotony  of  three  months'  waiting,  it  of- 
fered them  a  welcome  bit  of  excitement. 
And  so  deep  is  the  spirit  of  the  hunt  im- 
planted in  the  breast  of  man  that  even  the 
most  ardent  Cuban  sympathizers  grew  exult- 

166 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE    167 

ant  as  the  hull  of  the  flying  vessel  came  in 
sight  and  gradually  increased  in  size. 

The  Bell  Buoy  (for  it  soon  proved  to  be 
she)  was  making  an  excellent  showing,  run- 
ning wing  and  wing  before  the  wind  with 
every  stitch  of  canvas  crowded  on.  But  the 
odds  were  too  uneven.  Slowly,  but  surely, 
creeping  up  as  relentlessly  as  fate,  the  big 
battle  ship  was  gaining  on  her. 

Although  there  were  a  score  of  glasses 
levelled  at  the  schooner,  it  was  the  Captain 
who  first  exclaimed,  — 

"  They're  throwing  it  all  overboard  !  " 

The  deck  of  the  Bell  Buoy  was  swarming 
with  men  staggering  under  the  weight  of 
apparently  very  heavy  boxes,  —  several  men 
to  a  box,  —  which  were  being  whipped  up 
from  below  and  thrown  into  the  sea. 

"Arms  and  ammunition  all  going  by  the 
board,"  observed  the  Captain.  "  They  are 
getting  rid  of  incriminating  evidence.  But 
there  are  several  of  us  here  to  swear  to  the 
fact.  They  ought  to  have  begun  earlier." 

He  watched  the  schooner  in  silence  a  few 


i68     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

minutes,  then  gave  the  order,  "  Signal  them 
to  heave  to." 

The  flags  were  strung  up  at  the  masthead, 
but  no  attention  was  paid  to  them. 

"  There's  a  fog  coming  up,  I  think,  Cap- 
tain," suggested  the  navigator. 

The  Captain  nodded. 

"  If  we  don't  get  them  pretty  soon,  we'll 
lose  them  altogether,  and  that  fellow  knows 
it  as  well  as  we  do.  Fire  a  blank  car- 
tridge." 

There  was  a  puff  of  smoke,  a  flash  of  fire,  a 
noisy  peal,  and  then  —  nothing.  The  Bell 
Buoy  still  sped  on  her  way.  The  fog  was  roll- 
ing down  on  them,  thick  and  white.  A  few 
minutes  more  and  the  schooner  would  be  out 
of  sight. 

"  Drop  a  shell  ahead  of  her,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain, suddenly. 

Again  the  puflf  and  flash  and  roar,  and  this 
time  a  projectile  ripped  the  air  and  splashed 
into  the  water  a  hundred  yards  beyond  the 
schooner. 

"  That  will   bring   our  friend   to  reason,  I 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    169 

think,"  remarked  the  Captain.  But  the  Bell 
Buoy  showed  no  sign  of  heaving  to. 

"  That  fellow  has  nerve,"  muttered  the 
Captain. 

He  glanced  again  at  the  thickening  fog. 

"You  can  fire  to  hit  this  time,"  he  said 
presently. 

The  shot  struck  home.  So  much  was  cer- 
tain. But  the  Bell  Buoy  was  enveloped  in  such 
a  cloud  of  smoke  that  it  was  impossible  to  tell 
at  first  how  much  damage  had  been  done. 

As  the  smoke  cleared  away  the  schooner's 
taffrail  was  seen  to  be  under  water  and  her 
bow  well  up  in  the  air.  Her  crew  were  cut- 
ting away  the  sails  and  crowding  forward  and 
up  into  the  rigging.  She  was  evidently  sink- 
ing rapidly. 

"  Stand  by  to  lower  your  starboard  boats," 
said  the  Captain  to  the  first  lieutenant.  "  Star- 
board !  "  he  directed  the  man  at  the  wheel. 

"  Starboard,  sir,"  the  quartermaster  echoed. 
Then  in  a  moment,  "  Hard  a  starboard,  sir." 

The  Captain  rang  one  bell  for  the  engine  to 
slow  down,  and  presently  two  to  stop.  The 


170     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Idaho  swung  around  till  she  headed  to  the 
east,  and  the  starboard  boats  were  lowered  in 
the  lee  of  the  ship  and  put  off  for  the  sinking 
schooner.  As  soon  as  they  had  gotten  away, 
the  Idaho  was  started  ahead  again,  her  helm 
ported,  and  she  came  up  to  leeward  of  the  Bell 
Buoy,  so  that  the  returning  boats,  heavily  laden 
with  men,  should  not  have  to  struggle  back 
against  the  wind. 

It  was  a  very  motley  collection  of  Cuban 
patriots  and  American  adventurers,  nearly  a 
hundred  strong,  who  were  finally  rounded  up 
on  the  deck  of  the  Idaho.  For  the  moment 
they  had  been  frightened  into  something  re- 
sembling meekness  and  were  actually  grateful 
for  being  rescued,  —  in  some  instances  almost 
abjectly  so.  But  as  soon  as  dry  clothes  had 
been  served  out  to  them  from  the  ship's  stores 
and  a  good  hot  meal  from  the  galley,  they 
began  to  bluster  and  talk  about  recovering 
damages  from  the  government.  One  man 
became  so  abusive  that  he  had  to  be  put  in 
irons,  but  most  of  them  merely  muttered. 

Captain    Cartwright    was    very    anxious    to 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  SERVICE    171 

patch  up  the  hull  of  his  prize  and  tow  her 
into  port,  but  her  injuries  proved  to  be  be- 
yond repair,  and  she  had  to  be  abandoned. 
No  incriminating  evidence  was  found  aboard 
her,  although  the  hold  was  too  full  of  water 
to  admit  of  thorough  exploration.  She  went 
down  a  few  minutes  after  the  prize-crew  left 
her,  and  the  Idaho  proceeded  to  Key  West. 

As  soon  as  he  arrived  there,  Captain  Cart- 
wright  turned  over  his  prisoners  to  the  civil 
authorities  and  telegraphed  to  Washington  an 
account  of  what  he  had  done. 

Then  the  reporters  came  down  on  him. 

Now  it  has  already  been  intimated  that  Cap- 
tain Cartwright  did  not  like  reporters.  He 
had  no  objection  to  editors  or  staff  writers. 
He  numbered  several  among  his  personal 
friends.  But  for  reporters  he  cherished  an 
extreme  aversion.  His  wife  had  been  trying 
for  years  to  convince  him  that  there  were 
various  sorts  of  reporters  and  that  he  ought 
to  discriminate  between  them.  But  his  con- 
ception of  the  type  was  rigid.  It  included 
glibness,  brazenness,  vulgarity,  prying  curi- 


172     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

osity,  a  ghoulish  lust  for  the  unpleasant,  a 
willingness  to  invade  the  most  sacred  priva- 
cies, a  disregard  of  truth,  a  disregard  of  de- 
cency, and  a  complete  lack  of  reverence  for 
things  that  ought  to  be  revered.  In  a  word, 
it  represented  to  him  the  incarnation  of  enter- 
prising flippancy. 

To  the  first  newspaper  man  who  came  on 
board  at  Key  West,  the  Captain  accorded  a  brief 
audience,  in  which  he  communicated  the  bare 
facts  of  the  chase  and  sinking  of  the  Bell  Buoy. 

"  That  is  all  I  have  to  say,"  he  added, 
pushing  back  his  chair  and  rising  in  a  man- 
ner which  left  no  alternative,  even  to  a  re- 
porter, but  to  rise  too. 

"  But,  Captain,  what  is  going  to  be  done 
with  these  men  now  ?  " 

"  I  know  nothing  about  that.  It  rests  with 
the  courts." 

"Will  they  all  be  tried  or  only  the  leaders?" 

"  I  have  just  told  you  that  I  know  noth- 
ing about  it." 

"  How  did  you  learn  about  this  alleged  em- 
barkation of  arms  and  men  in  the  first  place  ?  " 


cc 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE    173 
That   is   something    I   prefer   not  to   dis- 


cuss." 


(C 


Have  you  any  positive  proof  that  they 
were  breaking  the  laws  ?  " 

"  I  shall  say  what  I  know  on  that  subject 
when  I  am  called  as  a  witness  to  testify  in 
court." 

"  If  you  can't  prove  that  they  were  fili- 
bustering, will  the  government  have  to  pay 
damages  for  the  sinking  of  the  ship  ? " 

"  I   haven't  considered  that  question." 

"  I  should  like  to  have  a  few  details 
about  —  " 

"  No,  sir.  I  think  I've  already  told  you 
that  I  have  nothing  more  to  say." 

"In  that  case  I  suppose  I  may  as  well  bid 
you  good  morning,  Captain." 

"  Why,  yes,  I  think  so,"  he  agreed.  "  Good 
morning." 

"The  old  man's  a  regular  Turk,"  the  re- 
porter confided  to  another  representative  of 
the  press,  whom  he  met  coming  aboard. 

"  That  so  ?  "  said  the  other,  jauntily.  "  Oh, 
I'll  manage  him  all  right." 


174    THE  SPIRIT   OF  THE  SERVICE 

"  Wish  you  joy  of  him,"  muttered  the 
first. 

The  second  young  man,  being  warned, 
adopted  a  conciliatory  and  somewhat  oleagi- 
nous manner  that  was  peculiarly  annoying  to 
the  Captain,  who  dismissed  him  even  more 
brusquely  than  his  predecessor. 

After  that  he  gave  orders  that  no  reporters 
were  to  be  allowed  on  board  the  ship  under 
any  pretext.  He  had  his  clerk  prepare  a 
brief  type-written  account  of  the  event,  which 
he  directed  to  be  shown  at  the  gangway  to 
every  reporter  who  came  for  news. 

Balked  in  their  attempt  to  get  the  story  of 
the  Idaho's  adventure  from  her  commander, 
or  even  from  the  officers  and  crew  unless 
they  lay  in  wait  for  them  ashore,  the  reporters 
naturally  turned  for  picturesque  details  to  the 
members  of  the  late  filibustering  expedition, 
who  supplied  them  plentifully.  Time  hung 
heavy  on  their  hands  in  the  Key  West  jail, 
and  they  were  glad  to  talk,  glad  also  of  the 
opportunity  to  pose  as  martyrs  and  air  their 
grievances. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    175 

Thus  it  came  about  that  Captain  Cartwright 
awoke  one  morning  to  find  himself  pilloried 
for  public  obloquy  in  every  newspaper  of  the 
country.  He  was  called  a  "  gold-laced  marti- 
net," a  "  cold-blooded  brute,"  a  "  quarter-deck 
tyrant,"  a  "  would-be  murderer,"  and  it  was 
even  intimated  by  one  particularly  yellow  sheet 
that  he  was  in  the  pay  of  Spain ! 

Mrs.  Cartwright's  indignation  knew  no 
bounds.  She  could  not  understand  her  hus- 
band's perfect  equanimity.  She  would  have 
liked  to  sue  the  whole  American  press  for 
libel. 

"There  are  some  sources,"  he  wrote  her, 
"  from  which  abuse  is  more  flattering  than 
praise.  As  long  as  my  conscience  is  easy  and 
the  Department  approves  my  action,  nothing 
else  concerns  me." 

"  I  know  you've  been  snubbing  reporters 
again,"  she  wrote,  "  and  they  are  retaliating." 

"Very  likely,"  he  replied,  but  showed  no 
further  interest  in  the  matter. 

What  laid  the  last  straw  on  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright's  exasperation  was  the  fact  that  an- 


176     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

other  naval  officer,  Commander  Morrow  of 
the  Springfield,  had  been  lauded  to  the  skies 
a  few  months  before  for  catching  a  filibuster 
and  had  been  written  up  in  all  the  news- 
papers as  the  hero  of  a  brilliant  exploit. 
But  Commander  Morrow  had  an  undiffer- 
entiating  social  nature.  He  regarded  his 
fellow-men  primarily  as  an  audience  for  his 
humorous  stories,  and  classed  them  according 
to  the  degree  of  appreciation  they  exhibited. 
After  spending  several  months  watching  for 
filibusters,  and  having  told  his  whole  series 
of  anecdotes  to  his  officers  so  often  that  their 
laughter  had  become  perfunctory,  he  keenly 
enjoyed  the  calls  of  the  reporters.  He  gave 
them  cigars  and  something  to  drink  and  asked 
them  to  come  again.  At  parting,  he  laid  his 
hands  on  their  shoulders  and  confided  to 
them  in  an  undertone,  trusting  to  them  as 
men  of  honor  not  to  repeat  it,  some  trivial 
matter  that  might  with  perfect  impunity  have 
been  shouted  from  the  house-tops.  By  this 
simple  device,  he  won  their  undying  grati- 
tude and  harmed  no  one. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    177 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  ready  enough  to  laugh 
at  the  celebrity  Commander  Morrow  had  ac- 
quired and  the  incense  burned  at  his  feet  by 
admiring  reporters.  But  she  could  not  help 
resenting  the  radical  difference  in  the  way  her 
husband  was  being  treated. 

"  The  poor  dear  Captain ! "  wrote  Sue 
from  California.  "  I  shall  never  believe  any- 
thing I  read  in  a  newspaper  again.  It  is  too 
outrageous." 

"The  truly  elect  have  been  reviled  by  the 
populace  from  the  beginning  of  the  world," 
wrote  Barbara.  "  Don't  let  it  worry  you, 
dear  Mrs.  Cartwright.  Our  Captain 's  in 
excellent  company." 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  blood  of  the    Forty-niners   is   a 
legacy    of   unrest    which    keeps    all 
good  Californians  on  the  move. 
After  she  got  back  from  the  East,  Sue  spent 
a  month  or  so  in  San  Francisco,  a  month  or 
so  camping  in  the  Yosemite,  a  month   or  so 
on    her    brother's    ranch    near    Los    Angeles, 
went   to   Japan    for   a   few   months   with    her 
father,  who  was  worn  out  from  too  close  ap- 
plication   to    the    business    of   the    bank,  and 
then,  on  her  return,  suddenly  decided  to  try 
Settlement  work. 

She  kept  at  it  in  San  Francisco  for  a  few 
months,  but  did  not  feel  satisfied  with  what 
she  was  accomplishing,  and  imagined  it  would 
be  a  great  advantage  to  her  work  there  if  she 
went  to  New  York  and  learned  eastern  methods. 
They  have  at  heart  a  very  great  respect  for  all 

things  eastern  in  the  West,  just  as  they  have 

178 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     179 

for  all  things  European  in  the  East.  In  its 
last  analysis,  it  is  merely  the  reverence  ren- 
dered by  Youth  to  Age.  Youth's  self-confidence 
is  largely  a  matter  of  bluff.  It  really  credits 
Age  with  a  superhuman  amount  of  wisdom, 
although  it  does  not  often  say  so,  for  fear 
Age  will  be  unduly  puffed  up. 

Sue  took  up  her  residence  in  a  little  com- 
munity of  earnest  young  women  on  Riving- 
ton  Street.  She  did  not  find  it  so  different 
from  the  San  Francisco  settlement  as  she  had 
expected,  but  there  were  things  to  learn,  and 
she  plunged  heart  and  soul  into  the  task  of 
learning  them. 

"  Play  while  you  play  and  work  while  you 
work,"  was  Sue's  motto.  She  did  not  inform 
any  one  of  her  presence  in  New  York  for  sev- 
eral weeks,  and  then  made  herself  known  only 
to  Mrs.  Cartwright,  and  begged  that  lady  to 
tell  no  one  of  her  being  there. 

"It  will  rest  me  to  come  up  here  and  talk 
to  you  sometimes,  dear  Mrs.  Cartwright,"  she 
said.  They  were  sitting  side  by  side  on  the 
divan,  and  Sue  was  holding  Mrs.  Cartwright's 


i8o     THE    SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

hand  in  both  of  hers  and  patting  it  affection- 
ately. "  But  you  can  readily  understand  that 
I  haven't  either  the  time  or  the  heart  just 
now  for  frivolities.  I  couldrit  go  from  Riv- 
ington  Street  to  a  dinner,  or  a  dance,  or  the 
opera.  The  sudden  contrast  would  be  too 
great  a  shock.  It  would  hurt.  But  most 
people  can't  understand  that.  They  would 
think  I  needed  distraction  and  would  try  to  get 
me  to  go  to  things,  and  they  would  come  down 
there  to  call  and  be  dreadfully  in  the  way.  So 
please  promise  you  won't  breathe  it  to  a  soul." 

"  Of  course,  if  you  wish  it  —  " 

"I  do!" 

"  But  I  don't  approve  of  it  a  bit.  I  don't 
see  what  your  mother  was  thinking  about,  to 
let  you  go  down  there." 

"Why,  I'm  afraid  I  didn't  consult  her,  Mrs. 
Cartwright.  I  just  told  her  I  was  going." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  exclaimed  in  horror. 

"You  westerners  have  most  extraordinary 
ideas,"  she  commented.  "  At  what  period  of 
your  nursery  career  do  your  parents  abdicate 
their  authority  ? " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    181 

"  It's  done  gradually.  My  brothers  joined 
a  self-government  club  at  eight  or  ten.  The 
boys  pledged  themselves  to  maintain  a  high 
standard  of  manliness,  truthfulness,  and  honor. 
They  appointed  a  committee  to  chastise  any 
of  their  number  who  fell  below  the  require- 
ments. The  parents  pledged  themselves  not 
to  interfere." 

"Remarkable!     And  it  worked?" 

"  Splendidly." 

"And  did  they  teach  each  other  manners, 
too  ? " 

"Well,  no.  They  were  supposed  to  get 
those  by  imitation  at  home, — just  as  they 
had  learned  to  talk.  I  won't  say  that  there 
were  not  parental  suggestions  along  that  line 
sometimes.  But  the  idea  was  to  interfere  as 
little  as  possible.  What  you  do  for  yourself 
in  the  way  of  character-building  is  so  much 
more  useful  than  what  some  one  else  does  for 
you." 

"  Wonderful !  "  said  Mrs.  Cartwright,  but 
it  was  evident  that  she  disapproved.  "  Now 
Elizabeth  wanted  to  take  up  her  abode  down 


1 82     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

there  among  the  microbes  at  one  time,  but 
we  wouldn't  let  her." 

"  Poor  Elizabeth,"  murmured  Sue,  "  how 
she  must  have  suffered  under  that  patriarchal 
system !  She  was  not  lacking  in  character, 
Elizabeth." 

"Why,  of  course  not."  Mrs.  Cartwright 
looked  surprised. 

"  And  I  suppose  she  took  it  all  amiably 
because  she  was  so  fond  of  you  ? " 

"  I  don't  think  Elizabeth  found  the  be- 
hests of  her  parents  burdensome.  She  had 
been  used  all  her  life  to  discipline.  She  was 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  it.  The  obe- 
dience that  was  exacted  of  her  was  far  less 
arbitrary  than  what  the  service  exacts  of  her 
father." 

"True.  The  navy  spirit  again.  It  may 
have  helped  her.  But  why  wouldn't  you  let 
her  go  to  the  Settlement,  Mrs.  Cartwright? " 

"  Because,  with  all  due  deference  to  you, 
Sue,  it's  such  perfect  nonsense.  What  do  you 
girls  accomplish,  besides  making  yourselves 
profoundly  uncomfortable  ? " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    183 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Cartwright !  " 

Sue  flushed  and  paused.  The  life  she  was 
leading  meant  so  much  to  her.  The  thing 
she  wished  to  do,  the  thing  she  believed  she 
was  helping  to  do,  was  enormous,  but  if  one 
had  to  gauge  it  by  concrete  accomplishment, 
it  did  look  rather  small. 

"  We  are  trying,"  she  began  gropingly,  "  to 
bridge  over  the  terrible  chasm  between  the 
so-called  upper  and  lower  halves." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  smiled. 

"  Oh,  we  don't  flatter  ourselves  we  are  doing 
it,  —  not  altogether,  —  but  we  are  helping.  We 
don't  expect  miracles." 

"  I  dare  say  I  seem  very  unsympathetic. 
But  it  appeared  to  me  the  girls  spent  their 
time  playing  jack-straws  and  old  maid  with  a 
lot  of  small  children,  who  might  just  as  well 
have  been  playing  those  interesting  games  by 
themselves.  I  don't  believe  any  amount  of  old 
maid  and  jack-straws  will  bridge  the  chasm." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Sue.     "  It  might." 

"  Now  if  you  were  distributing  coal  and 
potatoes,  I  could  understand  that." 


1 84     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

"  Oh,  we  don't  approve  of  almsgiving.  It 
breeds  a  race  of  paupers.  It  makes  the  chasm 
broader  than  ever.  We  try  to  help  people  to 
help  themselves." 

"  If  you  taught  them  really  useful  things, — 
dressmaking  or  carpentry  or  something  of  that 
sort—" 

"  We  do,  when  they  want  to  learn  those 
things,  but  mostly  they  don't  care  to." 

"  Exactly !  And  so  you  give  them  music 
lessons  and  dancing  lessons  !  " 

"  Don't  you  think  they  need  some  recrea- 
tion in  their  lives  ?  And  isn't  it  a  gain  if  we 
offer  them  a  sort  that  is  innocent  ?  " 

"  Sue,  I'm  afraid  I'm  hopeless.  I  appreciate 
your  good  intentions  fully.  But  here  are  a  lot 
of  girls  leaving  comfortable  homes  and  going 
down  into  the  slums  to  fill  their  lungs  with 
vile  air,  keeping  up  an  elaborate  fiction  that 
they  are  not  philanthropists,  so  that  they  can 
meet  their  neighbors  on  a  plane  of  social  equal- 
ity, giving  lessons  in  music  and  dancing  to 
people  who  haven't  proper  food  to  eat  or  de- 
cent clothes  to  wear,  trying  to  prevent  labor 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    185 

troubles  by  playing  jack-straws  with  the  strik- 
ers' children  —  Well,  Sue,  I  can't  help  it. 
It  looks  to  me  like  the  Bab  Ballads  !  " 

Sue  laughed,  with  her  large  tolerance. 

"  I'm  afraid  you're  beyond  my  powers  of 
conversion,  Mrs.  Cartwright.  But  if  I  had 
you  down  there  for  a  week,  I  think  you'd  con- 
vert yourself.  And  at  the  end  of  the  second 
week,  you'd  be  turning  socialist." 

"  Not  I !  But,  for  heaven's  sake,  Sue,  you 
don't  mean  that  you  are  bitten  by  that  form  of 
insanity?  I  suppose  you'll  be  throwing  bombs 
next." 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Cartwright,  don't  tell  me  that 
you,  with  all  your  discernment,  don't  under- 
stand the  difference  between  socialism  and 
anarchy  ?  " 

"  How  natural  that  sounds !  I  suppose  if 
Elizabeth  said  that  to  me  once,  she  said  it  a 
thousand  times." 

"  And  you  still  class  them  together  ?  Poor 
Elizabeth ! " 

"  Look  here,  Sue  Ballinger,  I  won't  have  you 
pitying  Elizabeth.  Do  I  look  like  an  ogre  ?  " 


186     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE 

"  Oh,  the  benevolent  despots  are  the  worst 
kind !  You  can  fight  the  wicked  ones,  but 
true  nobility  bends  its  back  and  accepts  the 
yoke  of  the  benevolent  tyrant — for  love's  sake." 

"  You  impertinent  child  !  "  laughed  Mrs. 
Cartwright. 

Just  then  Wriggles  came  in,  and  Sue 
jumped  for  him  with  a  cry  of  welcome.  But 
Mrs.  Cartwright  seized  her  arm  detainingly. 

"  Don't    touch    him,  Sue  ! "  she  exclaimed 
"  You  can't  kiss  him  unless  you  go  out  and 
disinfect  yourself  first.     You  must  be  covered 
an  inch  deep  with  all  sorts  of  microbes." 

With  a  comical  expression  of  despair,  Sue 
let  her  hands  fall  at  her  side. 

"  I  can't  kiss  you,  Wriggles  dearest,  but  I 
love  you  just  as  much  as  ever,  and  I'll  throw 
you  a  whole  armful  of  kisses  across  the  room. 
Catch  ! "  And  she  went  through  the  panto- 
mime. 

Wriggles  looked  highly  puzzled. 

"  Mrs.  Cartwright,  will  you  please  give  your 
immaculate  grandson  the  contents  of  that  pack- 
age on  the  table  ?  I  bought  it  at  an  uptown 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     187 

shop,  and  I  feel  sure  I  didn't  touch  it.  So  if 
you  will  take  off  the  wrapping-paper,  which  I 
did  touch,  I  don't  believe  he'll  be  contami- 
nated. To  be  sure,  it  was  made  in  the 
first  place  by  a  colony  of  Bohemians  just 
around  the  corner  from  Rivington  Street, 
but  —  " 

"  You  can  jeer  as  much  as  you  like,  Sue. 
I  dare  say  we  all  run  frightful  risks  every  day, 
—  certainly  every  time  we  get  into  a  street-car. 
But  that  isn't  any  reason  for  running  more 
risks." 

Meantime  she  unwrapped  the  perambulat- 
ing ostrich,  wound  it  up,  and  started  it  across 
the  floor  to  Wriggles,  who  straightway  became 
unconscious  of  all  other  mundane  affairs. 

Sue  glanced  out  of  the  window,  noted  the 
gathering  dusk,  and  reluctantly  reached  for  her 
wraps.  At  that  moment  a  couple  of  cards 
were  brought  in  to  Mrs.  Cartwright,  and  as 
their  owners  followed  at  the  servant's  heels, 
Sue  could  not  get  away  without  meeting  them. 

They  proved  to  be  Mr.  Fairchild  and  Mr. 
McMasters.  Both  were  so  unmistakably  glad 


1 88     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

to  see  her  that  she  would  have  been  hardly 
human  if  she  had  not  felt  a  thrill  of  pleasure 
too.  Being  Sue,  the  swift  color  that  leaped  to 
her  cheeks,  the  light  that  flashed  in  her  eyes, 
the  smile  that  dimpled  around  her  lips,  made 
her  utterly  adorable. 

It  was  Mrs.  Cartwright  who  told  of  Sue's 
wish  to  remain  hidden  from  her  friends.  The 
young  men  treated  it  as  a  joke,  and  Sue  did 
not  insist  on  it.  She  even  let  young  Fairchild 
see  her  home,  and  made  no  protest  to  Mr. 
McMasters's  assertion  that  he  was  coming 
down  some  evening  very  soon  to  call. 

Just  now  he  stood  at  the  window  watching 
Sue  and  her  escort  walk  briskly  along  outside 
the  railing  of  the  park.  A  dry  snow  was  drift- 
ing lazily  down  on  them.  Their  footsteps 
made  the  first  dark  blots  on  the  new  white 
covering  of  the  sidewalk. 

"  They  do  look  well  together,"  he  said,  with 
a  cheerfulness  that  suggested  effort. 

"  He's  not  half  good  enough  for  her,"  Mrs. 
Cartwright  returned  sharply. 

Mr.  McMasters  sighed. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     189 

"  No,  that's  true,  but  no  one  else  is  either." 

"  I  could  think  of  some  one  who  comes  a 
good  deal  nearer  to  it  than  Harry  Fairchild." 

He  looked  at  her  for  a  moment  in  doubt. 
Then  a  deep  flush  spread  slowly  over  his  face. 

"  Thank  you,  Mrs.  Cartwright,  a  thousand 
times.  But  it's  no  use.  Her  manner  to  me 
is  absolutely  sisterly." 

"  Well,  what  do  you  expect  ?  Isn't  your 
manner  to  her  absolutely  brotherly  ? " 

"  I  shouldn't  dare  let  it  be  anything  else." 

"  I  don't  often  meddle  in  things  that  don't 
concern  me  —  " 

He  murmured  a  vague  protest  at  the  im- 
plication. 

"My  excuse  must  be  that  I  think  so  much 
of  you  both.  Perhaps  I  am  mistaken  about 
the  way  you  feel.  You  haven't  ever  confided 
in  me.  Perhaps  I  am  mistaken  about  the  way 
Sue  feels.  She  hasn't  confided  in  me  either." 

"You're  most  awfully  good,  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright.  Do  you  mind  if  I  say  good-by  and  go 
out  to  walk  it  off?  I've  got  to  get  my  head 
cool  before  I  can  think.  You've  rather  bowled 


i9o     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

me  over,  you  know,  and  I  don't  know  exactly 
where  I  stand." 

When  she  was  left  alone,  Mrs.  Cartwright 
beat  her  brow  in  simulated  despair. 

"  I've  been  in  this  world  for  half  a  century," 
she  remarked,  "  and  I  think  this  is  my  first 
attempt  at  match-making.  Also  it  shall  be 
my  last.  I  don't  believe  he's  in  love  with  her 
at  all.  His  emotion  was  pure  embarrassment. 
He  must  think  I  was  flinging  her  at  his  head ; 
and  probably  Sue  is  engaged  all  the  time  to 
some  man  in  California  !  " 

"  I'm  glad  it  hasn't  made  him  stay  away 
from  her,"  she  reflected  to  herself,  about  a 
week  later,  when  Sue  dropped  in  for  tea  and 
began  telling  her  of  Mr.  McMasters's  call. 

"He  was  such  a  dear,"  Sue  confided  to  her. 
"  I  was  busy  with  a  meeting  of  the  Mothers' 
Club  when  he  came,  and  I  didn't  know  what 
on  earth  to  do  with  him.  But  he  took  it  all 
in  his  own  hands  and  said  he'd  come  to  the 
meeting  too.  I  led  him  in  with  fear  and 
trembling  —  I'll  tell  you  why  presently  —  and 
introduced  him  all  around,  and  he  was  -perfect  I 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE     191 

He  met  them  with  absolute  courtesy  and  abso- 
lute naturalness.  I  suppose  you  think  'Why 
shouldn't  he  ? '  —  but  it  doesn't  always  follow. 
When  the  business  part  of  the  meeting  was 
over,  he  picked  up  a  banjo  that  was  lying  on 
the  window-seat  and  began  strumming  on  it 
and  singing  sailor  songs.  I'd  never  heard 
them  before  and  found  them  fascinating,  and  so 
did  the  mothers.  In  betweentimes  he  spun 
them  all  sorts  of  navy  yarns.  They  think  he's 
the  most  delightful  person  they  ever  met ;  and 
I've  received  requests  from  a  young  men's 
club,  a  young  women's  club,  three  boys'  clubs, 
and  a  girls'  club  to  get  him  down  there  to  sing 
for  them." 

"  I'm  glad  he  made  such  a  hit.  I  didn't 
know  he  was  so  resourceful ;  but  I  should  have 
expected  him  to  behave  with  entire  propriety. 
What  did  you  mean  by  your  '  fear  and 
trembling '  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Cartwright,  it  makes  my  blood  boil 
whenever  I  think  of  it !  It  was  that  Fairchild 
cub,  the  afternoon  I  was  here  before.  He  went 
home  with  me,  you  know,  and  of  course  I  had 


i92     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

to  ask  him  in,  and  some  of  our  neighbors 
were  there,  and  he  —  Mrs.  Cartwright,  I  was 
mortified  enough  to  sink  through  the  floor !  — 
he  tried  to  talk  over  their  heads  to  me.  He 
made  fun  of  them  to  me  before  their  faces. 
Did  he  think  they  were  fools,  not  to  under- 
stand ?  He  acted  as  if  the  whole  thing  were  a 
show.  I  wish  I  could  have  told  him  what  I 
thought  of  him !  Oh,  he  has  nice  enough 
manners  at  a  dinner,  and  he  dances  like  an 
angel  —  " 

"  Do  angels  dance  well  ? "  Mrs.  Cartwright 
murmured. 

"  But  when  you  get  down  to  basic  facts,  he's 
not  a  gentleman  !  " 

"  Perhaps  I  didn't  make  such  a  mess  of 
playing  Providence  after  all,"  thought  Mrs. 
Cartwright  to  herself. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE    Idaho,    after   being   relieved    on 
the  Florida  patrol,  and  passing  some 
months,  not    too  agreeably,  between 
Colon,  Gonaives,  and    La  Guayra,  had  come 
north  to  the  Brooklyn  navy  yard  to  go  into 
dock. 

On  the  morning  of  the  i6th  of  February 
Captain  and  Mrs.  Cartwright  and  Wriggles 
sat  down  to  breakfast  at  their  little  round 
table  in  the  hotel  dining  room.  After  giving 
his  order  to  the  waiter,  the  Captain  casually 
unfolded  the  morning  paper  that  lay  beside 
his  plate.  Great  black  headlines  in  letters 
two  inches  long  ran  across  the  first  page.  As 
he  looked  his  eyes  dilated.  His  lips  moved, 
but  no  sound  came  from  them.  His  face  was 
ashy. 

o  193 


i94     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  What  is  it  ?  What  is  it  ? "  cried  his 
wife. 

"  The  Maine  is  blown  up,"  he  said,  in  a 
curiously  even  voice,  turning  the  paper  for 
her  to  see. 

"  What !  "  she  exclaimed,  horror-struck. 
"  The  Maine  ?  In  Havana  ?  By  the  Span- 
iards ? " 

His  face  grew  very  stern. 

"  No,  no.  That's  impossible.  You 
mustn't  say  such  a  thing,  not  whisper  it,  not 
think  it.  It  must  have  been  an  accident." 

His  vehemence  implied  so  much  rebuke 
that  she  felt  ashamed  of  her  suspicion. 

"  Were  there  many  lives  lost  ?  "  she  faltered, 
eager  to  know,  yet  afraid  of  the  answer. 

"  Up  into  the  hundreds.  There  are  no  full 
reports  yet." 

By  this  time  acquaintances  from  other  tables 
were  crowding  around  to  discuss  the  matter 
with  the  Captain.  They  felt  that  he,  being 
a  naval  officer,  must  somehow  be  able  to  give 
them  inside  information. 

His  wife  shielded  him  the  best  she  could. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    195 

She  saw  that  he  was  too  much  shocked  to 
talk.  Presently  he  pushed  away  his  untasted 
breakfast  and  left  the  room  to  go  to  his 
ship. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  he  came  back. 

"  You  have  seen  the  extras  ? "  he  asked  his 
wife. 

"Yes." 

"  I  wouldn't  believe  it  this  morning.  It 
seemed  too  monstrous.  But  I'm  afraid  you 
were  right.  I'm  afraid  it  was  the  Spaniards." 

"  What  makes  you  think  so  ?  " 

"  The  details  given  in  the  despatches. 
Everything  points  to  an  external  explosion." 

He  went  over  the  telegrams  with  her, 
explaining  the  parts  that  seemed  to  him 
significant. 

"  If  they  did  blow  up  the  Maine,"  she  cried, 
"  the  whole  Spanish  nation  ought  to  be  swept 
off  the  face  of  the  earth ! " 

"  If  they  did  it,  there  will  be  vengeance," 
he  replied  grimly. 

"  Those  poor  fellows ! "  murmured  Mrs. 
Cartwright,  with  pictures  of  death  and  muti- 


196     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

lation  crowding  on  her  inner  vision.  "  Who 
were  the  officers,  Julius  ?  " 

He  got  out  the  navy  register,  and  they 
looked  over  the  complement  of  the  Maine, 
with  a  word  here  and  there,  as  they  came  upon 
the  name  of  some  special  friend.  It  was  not 
yet  certainly  known  who  was  lost  and  who 
saved. 

"  Poor  fellows ! "  whispered  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright  again. 

The  Captain  was  pacing  up  and  down  the 
room  as  though  it  were  a  quarter-deck. 

"  They  shall  have  all  Havana  for  a  funeral 
pyre,"  he  said  at  last. 

"  Yes,"  she  cried  tensely.  "  Oh,  I  wish  I 
could  fight  too  !  You  are  lucky,  Julius." 

"  I  am  lucky  in  having  the  Idaho.  Suppose 
this  had  happened  last  year,  when  I  couldn't 
get  a  ship  !  " 

"  It  would  have  been  heart-breaking,"  she 
said. 

"  Heart-breaking,"  he  repeated  fervently. 

"  You  always  said  there  would  be  war,"  she 
reminded  him. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    197 

"  It  was  bound  to  come.  But  I  didn't  fore- 
see anything  like  this." 

"  It's  so  much  worse  than  if  they  had  been 
killed  in  battle." 

"  Oh,  in  battle  !  That's  our  business.  And 
one  has  a  chance  to  fight  back.  But  to  be 
assassinated  —  " 

"  Stabbed  in  the  back.  It's  the  treacherous 
Latin  blood." 

"  And  yet  they  are  compatriots  of  the  Cid  !  " 

"  Degenerate  ones." 

"  Spawn  of  hell,"  he  muttered,  then  came 
out  roundly  with  " f  Vengeance  is  mine,  saith 
the  Lord.' " 

"  We  aren't  going  to  leave  it  to  Him, 
though,"  protested  Mrs.  Cartwright. 

"  We  are  His  instruments,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain, solemnly. 

After  the  first  cry  of  horror  that  went  up 
from  Cape  Cod  to  Cape  Mendocino,  came 
long  passion-filled  days  when  the  nation  held 
its  breath  and  waited. 

The  naval  court  of  inquiry  was  appointed 
and  sent  to  Havana  to  investigate  the  cause 


198     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

of  the  Maine's  explosion.  Selected  for  calm 
and  judicial  temperament,  as  well  as  for  supe- 
rior mental  acumen,  the  little  group  of  officers 
who  formed  the  court  had  every  trace  of  par- 
tisanship crushed  out  by  the  fearful  weight 
of  responsibility  resting  on  them.  They 
knew  the  government  hoped  for  evidence 
that  would  acquit  Spain  and  make  the  loss 
of  the  ship  a  dispensation  of  Providence. 
They  knew  the  hot-heads  of  their  own  ser- 
vice hoped  for  evidence  that  would  damn 
the  whole  Spanish  nation  to  the  lowest  depths 
of  hell.  But  their  judgment  was  not  swayed 
a  hair's  breadth  by  either  hope.  Alone,  al- 
most of  all  their  countrymen,  they  sat,  pas- 
sionless, unmoved,  and  sought  for  Truth. 

The  yellow  journals,  clamoring  for  imme- 
diate war,  howled  and  raged  and  foamed  at 
the  mouth,  accusing  the  government  of  cow- 
ardice and  venality.  Cooler  heads  insisted 
that  judgment  be  suspended  till  the  verdict 
of  the  court  was  received.  The  crime  alleged 
was  so  stupendous,  so  hideous,  so  unheard-of 
that  they  hesitated  to  believe  it  possible.  It 


199 

was  too  bad  to  be  true.  Yet  the  too-bad-to- 
be-true  has  been  true  thousands  of  times  since 
our  ancestors  lost  their  tails  and  developed 
consciences.  The  deeds  of  the  Boxers  just 
the  other  day  in  China  were  too  bad  to  be 
true.  But  —  alas  —  they  were  true.  The 
acts  of  our  own  lynching  mobs  are  too  bad 
to  be  true.  But  —  God  help  us! — they  are 
true.  The  question  was  one  to  be  decided 
on  the  evidence,  not  on  a  priori  theories  of 
likelihood. 

If  the  Maine  was  blown  up  by  Spaniards, 
then,  unless  the  Spanish  government  dis- 
owned the  act  and  meted  out  swift  justice 
to  its  guilty  subjects,  war  was  inevitable. 

One  commanding  figure  rose  above  the 
seething  and  the  tumult  of  those  days,  a 
steadfast  figure,  against  which  the  waves  of 
public  opinion  beat  pitilessly.  The  Presi- 
dent was  striving,  with  all  his  strength  of 
heart  and  soul  and  mind,  to  avert  the  calam- 
ity of  even  a  successful  war.  For  he  had 
seen  war  face  to  face  in  his  youth,  and  knew 
the  cost  of  it  in  blood  and  tears.  And 


200     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

it  might  not  be  successful.  It  was  for  him 
to  weigh  the  chances  of  disaster.  Indi- 
vidual enthusiasts  might  scorn  to  consider 
consequences.  It  was  his  duty  to  consider 
them.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  events  it 
is  hard  to  realize  that  victory  was  far  from 
being  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  President 
hoped  for  it,  of  course,  expected  it,  perhaps, 
but  certainly  he  did  not  feel  sure  of  it.  The 
army  and  the  navy  were  untried.  We  were 
a  nation  preeminently  of  peace.  We  had 
met  no  foreign  foe  since  the  Mexican  war, 
no  foreign  foe  our  match  in  strength  since 
1812.  Our  critics  abroad  were  freely  telling 
us  of  the  naval  and  military  superiority  of 
Spain.  Over-confidence  was  proverbially  an 
American  failing.  The  critics  might  be  right. 
The  navy,  meanwhile,  outside  the  solemn 
circle  of  the  court  of  inquiry,  was  straining 
like  a  bloodhound  at  its  leash.  Free  from 
the  awful  responsibilities  that  weighed  on  the 
Chief  Magistrate  and  on  the  court,  it  natu- 
rally took  a  more  immediate  and  personal 
view  of  the  crisis.  Passionately  convinced 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    201 

that  the  Maine's  destruction  was  compassed 
by  Spaniards,  it  regarded  itself  as  the  heaven- 
ordained  instrument  of  vengeance.  This  was 
the  navy's  quarrel.  It  should  be  the  navy's 
war.  What  had  been  to  the  rest  of  the 
country  an  appalling,  but  rather  impersonal, 
calamity,  was  to  the  navy  a  domestic  tragedy. 
Absolute  coolness  and  impartiality  could 
hardly  be  expected  from  it.  "  Remember 
the  Maine"  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a 
wholly  human  phrase. 

The  days  pending  the  investigation  were 
by  no  means  idle  days.  Hoping  always  to 
avert  war,  the  government  must  yet  in  com- 
mon prudence  prepare  for  it.  There  was 
plenty  of  work  to  be  done.  Navy  yards 
and  arsenals  were  running  day  and  night. 
Plans  were  being  made  for  coast  defence  and 
for  the  conversion  of  merchant  vessels  and 
yachts  into  auxiliary  cruisers  and  gunboats. 
All  this  was  merely  precautionary.  Nothing 
was  done  that  would  commit  the  country  to 
war  in  advance  of  the  findings  of  the  court. 

On    board    ships    already     in    commission, 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

like  the  Idaho,  every  nerve  was  strained  to 
bring  both  equipment  and  personnel  to  the 
highest  point  of  efficiency.  The  men  worked 
at  the  old  familiar  drills  with  a  new  zest. 
Sighting  a  great  gun  or  screwing  on  a  tor- 
pedo head  had  suddenly  become  a  vital  func- 
tion. 

In  the  wardroom  the  officers  held  fiery 
discussions  over  every  extra  bulletin  giving 
the  latest  guess  about  the  evidence  before 
the  court  and  the  latest  rumor  about  the 
probable  action  of  Congress.  The  young- 
sters put  up  their  money  freely  on  the 
absorbing  question  of  war  or  no-war,  the 
enthusiastic  pros  venturing  their  dollars  on 
what  they  hoped  for  with  all  their  hearts, 
the  long-headed  cons  hedging  against  fate 
and  providing  themselves  with  at  least  a 
crumb  of  consolation  in  case  the  war  should 
not  materialize. 

It  was  much  the  same  in  the  forecastle, 
except  that  the  spirit  there  was  more  bitter. 
There  was  hardly  a  man  beyond  his  first 
enlistment  but  had  friends  and  former  ship- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    203 

mates  among  those  lost  on  the  Maine.  It 
was  a  clan  feud  with  them.  Their  blood 
was  at  fever  heat,  and  their  one  longing  was 
to  fight. 

The  Captain  in  his  lonely  cabin  did  plenty 
of  thinking,  but  kept  his  thoughts  to  him- 
self. In  his  more  conspicuous  position,  he 
had  to  guard  his  tongue,  lest  his  utterances 
should  compromise  the  government.  It  was 
fortunate  for  Captain  Cartwright  that  he  was 
in  a  home  port  and  could  go  every  after- 
noon to  dine  and  spend  the  night  at  the 
hotel.  His  talks  with  his  wife  acted  as  a 
safety  valve  to  his  feelings. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  a  patriot,  and  a 
fighting  patriot  to  the  core.  No  old  Roman 
matron  sending  her  sons  to  battle  was  actu- 
ated by  a  spirit  more  heroic  or  more  self- 
forgetful.  There  were  many  like  her,  but 
of  course  there  were  other  types  too,  —  the 
timid,  weeping,  clinging  kind  whose  love  of 
their  husbands  could  not  rise  above  solicitude 
for  their  personal  safety,  who  hoped  and 
prayed  that  they  might  be  kept  at  the  navy 


204     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

yards  or  attached  to  ships  not  likely  to  meet 
the  enemy. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  so  cheerful,  so  opti- 
mistic, so  positively  eager  for  the  fray,  that 
in  some  quarters  she  was  freely  accused  of 
heartlessness.  Yet  no  one  who  understood 
her  devotion  to  her  husband  could  doubt 
that  if  she  was  willing  to  expose  him  to 
Spanish  bullets,  it  was  the  supremest  proof 
she  could  give  of  her  patriotism,  and  that 
she  would  have  exposed  herself  to  them 
with  far  greater  cheerfulness. 

Among  those  most  firmly  convinced  of 
Mrs.  Cartwright's  coldness  of  heart  was  an 
old  maiden  aunt  of  the  Captain's,  who,  ever 
since  the  destruction  of  the  Maine,  had  been 
writing  him  frantic  letters  urging  him  to 
resign  his  commission.  These  letters  pierced 
like  rays  of  sunshine  through  the  tragic 
gloom  of  the  atmosphere  and  afforded  the 
Cartwrights  infinite  amusement. 

To  have  characterized  the  old  lady's  atti- 
tude as  either  cowardly  or  dishonorable 
would  have  been  to  wrong  her  utter  guile- 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE    205 

lessness.  Reasons  slipped  from  her  ungrasp- 
ing  mentality  as  easily  as  from  an  insistent 
child's.  Finding  her  appeal  to  her  nephew 
without  result,  she  had  written  to  his  wife, 
who,  she  took  it  for  granted,  would  share 
her  feelings.  She  never  got  over  the  shock 
of  Mrs.  Cartwright's  reply.  She  had  always 
before  supposed  that  Clara  loved  her  hus- 
band. But  now  it  was  all  too  evident  that 
she  did  not.  Poor  Julius !  It  was  doubt- 
less his  wife's  indifference  that  made  him 
so  willing  to  be  killed.  But  she,  his  aunt, 
who  had  loved  him  so  tenderly  from  his 
babyhood,  would  not  desert  him  now.  She 
had  a  last  resource,  in  the  efficacy  of  which 
she  placed  great  confidence,  though  she 
had  hesitated,  for  personal  reasons,  about 
using  it.  But  she  could  not  be  over-fastidi- 
ous when  Julius's  welfare  was  at  stake.  She 
mastered  some  sad  and  sacred  memories  of 
her  girlhood  and  set  in  motion  the  machin- 
ery that  was  to  save  her  beloved  nephew's 
life. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

NOTHING   could    have  exceeded  the 
dismay  of  Captain   Cartwright  when, 
on   opening  a   long   official   envelope 
from  the  Navy  Department  one  morning  about 
the   middle  of  March,   he   found  that  it  con- 
tained orders  detaching  him  from  the  command 
of  the  Idaho  on  the  reporting  of  his  relief. 

What  did  it  mean  ?  What  could  it  mean  ? 
Who  was  his  unknown  enemy  ?  Was  it  possible 
that  John  C.  O'Meara  had  climbed  into  a  posi- 
tion of  sufficient  eminence  to  reach  him  even 
under  a  different  administration  ?  That  his 
vindictiveness  would  be  equal  to  it,  the  Captain 
did  not  doubt,  but  that  he  could  have  the 
power  hardly  seemed  credible.  Was  it  possible 
that  the  reporters  who  had  campaigned  so  zeal- 
ously against  him  the  previous  summer  were 
still  in  arms  and  had  at  last  won  over  the 
Department  to  their  side  ? 

These   orders  meant   the  blasting  of  legiti- 
206 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    207 

mate  hopes  of  distinction,  which  he  had  nour- 
ished during  thirty-three  years  of  peace,  biding 
his  time  for  just  the  chance  now  being  snatched 
from  him.  But  they  meant  far  more.  They 
meant  the  absolute  ruin  of  his  career;  they 
meant  branding  him  for  life  as  a  man  in  whose 
courage  or  capacity  the  Department  lacked  con- 
fidence. Death  would  have  been  welcome  a 
thousand  times  rather  than  such  a  blow  at  that 
intangible,  but  infinitely  precious  possession, 
his  reputation.  The  old  half-forgotten  night- 
mare of  the  court  of  inquiry  sank  into  insig- 
nificance in  comparison  with  this  affront.  The 
accusation  of  appointing  and  discharging  work- 
men for  political  purposes  was  an  absurdity  on 
the  face  of  it  and  easily  disproved.  But  to  be 
deprived  of  his  command  almost  in  sight  of  the 
enemy,  with  no  other  ship  given  him  in  place 
of  it  and  no  chance  offered  for  vindication,  — 
men  have  died  for  less. 

"  Go  to  Washington,"  urged  his  wife. 
"  Find  out  what  it  means.  Try  to  get  these 
orders  revoked.  You  have  the  right  to  de- 
mand an  explanation," 


208     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

He  hesitated.  In  all  his  naval  career  — 
thirty-seven  years  of  it  —  he  had  never  asked 
to  have  orders  revoked  that  had  been  sent  him. 
He  had  taken  what  came,  no  matter  how  dis- 
agreeable, and  made  the  best  of  it. 

"  Somebody  has  to  do  it,"  he  would  say. 
"  If  I  got  out  of  it,  some  other  man  would 
have  to  go  in  my  place." 

He  had  never  asked  for  a  pleasant  billet. 
He  had  never  used  the  faintest  shadow  of 
political  or  social  influence  for  any  purpose. 
He  had  not  set  foot  in  the  corridors  of  the 
Navy  Department  for  upward  of  twenty  years. 
He  did  not  care  to  now.  But  — 

"It's  that  —  or  blow  my  brains  out,  I  sup- 
pose," he  said  quietly. 

A  horrible  fear  clutched  at  Mrs.  Cartwright's 
heart.  She  was  not  perfectly  sure  that  he  did 
not  mean  it.  Instinctively,  though,  she  hid 
her  doubt  from  him.  If  he  supposed  she  took 
what  he  said  seriously,  it  might  influence  him. 

"  Leave  that  to  the  Spaniards  !  "  she  jeered. 
"  Besides,  it  would  invalidate  the  insurance 
policies." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    209 

A  bit  of  downright  brutality  is  not  amiss 
now  and  then  for  jolting  a  man  into  sanity. 

"  I  will  go,"  he  said. 

The  bureau  chief  on  whom  he  called  when 
he  reached  the  Department  greeted  him  by  his 
Naval  Academy  nickname,  Borgia,  —  a  sobri- 
quet of  delightful  unaptness  derived  by  way  of 
Caesar  from  his  baptismal  name.  There  were 
only  a  few  men  left  in  the  service  who  called 
him  Borgia,  and  the  Captain's  heart  gave  a 
reminiscent  thump  at  the  sound  of  it. 

"  I've  come  up  to  see  who's  responsible  for 
my  detachment  from  the  Idaho,"  he  blurted 
out,  "and  whether  anything  can  be  done 
about  it." 

"Why,  Borgia,"  exclaimed  the  other  man, 
"  there's  been  a  big  mistake  somewhere.  I 
was  told  that  you  were  detached  at  your  own 
request." 

"  At  my  request  ?  "  cried  the  Captain. 

"  At  your  request,  on  the  score  of  ill  health. 
I  thought  you  must  be  on  your  death-bed.  I 
knew  you  wouldn't  give  up  that  ship  if  you 
could  stand  on  your  feet," 


2io     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  wouldn't  have  given  her  up,  if  I  had 
been  on  my  death-bed,  —  not  till  after  the 
funeral.  Do  I  look  sick  ?  " 

"  No,  you  don't." 

"  Then  somebody's  an  infernal  liar." 

"  Looks  like  it,  doesn't  it  ?  But  there 
must  be  some  sort  of  a  mistake,  Borgia. 
It  was  your  senator  who  put  in  the  re- 
quest." 

"  My  senator  ?  Which  one  ?  Never  laid 
eyes  on  him.  It's  a  piece  of  confounded  ras- 
cality. He  wanted  me  out  of  the  way  to  get 
the  ship  for  somebody  else.  It's  bad  enough 
to  be  ousted  from  my  berth  by  a  political  pull, 
but  to  have  the  damned  hypocrite  pretend  he 
did  it  at  my  request  is  a  little  bit  more  than 
a  man  can  be  expected  to  stand." 

The  Chief  of  Bureau  had  been  vainly  trying 
to  interrupt  him.  Now  at  last  he  got  in  his 
word. 

"  You're  all  wrong,  Borgia.  Whatever  the 
explanation  of  the  tangle  is,  it's  not  that.  He's 
not  that  sort  of  man  at  all.  He's  the  soul  of 
honor  and  high-mindedness.  Why  don't  you 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    211 

call  him  up  on  the  telephone  and  ask  him 
about  it  ?  He  ought  to  be  in  his  committee 
room  at  this  hour." 

Captain  Cartwright  adopted  the  suggestion. 

"  Go  easy,"  advised  the  bureau  chief,  as  the 
Captain  took  down  the  receiver.  "  Remem- 
ber, he's  one  of  the  Nestors  of  the  Senate,  and 
a  man  absolutely  above  suspicion." 

Having  done  his  duty  by  offering  these  sug- 
gestions, the  Admiral  was  able  to  enjoy  with  a 
clear  conscience  the  picturesque  vigor  of  the 
language  he  overheard. 

Captain  Cartwright  was  not  by  any  means  a 
profane  man,  but  his  feelings  on  this  occasion 
several  times  got  beyond  the  bounds  of  ordi- 
nary English,  and  the  fact  that  the  man  he  was 
accusing  of  "  unwarrantable  meddling  "  was  the 
distinguished  senior  senator  from  his  own  state 
weighed  not  a  grain  in  the  balance  against  his 
righteous  indignation. 

At  last  the  Captain  hung  up  the  receiver  and 
turned  around  with  the  ejaculation, — 

"  The  Lord  save  us  from  our  friends  !  " 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  asked  the  Chief  of  Bureau. 


212     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  have  a  venerable  maiden  aunt,  who  knew 
him  when  they  both  were  young,"  the  Captain 
explained.  "  She  is  a  nervous  soul  and  objects 
to  war.  She  asked  him  to  secure  my  detach- 
ment, and  he  took  it  for  granted  I  had  author- 
ized her  to  do  so,  —  went  off  half-cocked  and 
thought  he  was  doing  me  a  kindness  !  " 

"  By  George  !  "  cried  the  Chief  of  Bureau, 
slapping  his  knee,  "  I  wouldn't  like  to  be  in  the 
shoes  of  that  aunt  of  yours  when  she  hears  from 
you." 

"  The  interesting  point  just  now  is,  what  am 
I  to  do  ?  " 

"  Suppose  we  go  in  and  see  the  Secretary," 
he  suggested,  and  taking  the  Captain's  arm,  con- 
ducted him  to  the  official  head  of  the  Navy 
Department. 

"  Mr.  Secretary,"  he  said,  his  lips  twitching 
into  a  smile  under  his  grizzled  beard,  "  I  have 
to  present  to  you  the  most  unhappy  man  in 
the  service,  Captain  Cartwright." 

The  Secretary's  manner  was  icy.  He  bowed 
without  extending  his  hand.  But  as  the  Chief 
of  Bureau  told  the  story,  his  face  cleared,  and 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    213 

at  the  end  he  held  out  his  hand  with  a  cordial 
expression  of  sympathy  and  regret. 

"  Take  a  seat,  Captain,  and  we'll  see  what 
we  can  do  about  it.  The  Admiral  here  will 
help  us." 

"  Can't  I  keep  the  Idaho  ? "  asked  Captain 
Cartwright.  "  That  seems  the  simplest  way 
out  of  it,  and  certainly  is  the  one  that  suits  me 
best." 

"  Unfortunately,  I'm  afraid  not.  The  or- 
ders have  already  been  sent  to  Captain  Kings- 
bury  to  relieve  you.  He  has  been  promised 
the  Idaho,  and  relies  on  it.  He  mustn't  be  left 
in  the  lurch.  He  hasn't  done  anything,  you 
know.  He  hasn't  even  got  an  aunt." 

The  Captain  achieved  a  sickly  smile. 

"  But  he  would  be  no  worse  off  than  he  was 
before." 

"  Yes,  because  there  were  other  ships  to 
choose  from  day  before  yesterday  that  have 
since  been  assigned.  Everybody  is  applying 
for  a  ship,  you  know." 

"  One  of  the  big  ocean  liners  that  are 
to  be  turned  into  commerce  destroyers  is 


214     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

still  unassigned,"  suggested  the  Chief  of 
Bureau. 

"  Well,  you  can  have  her,  Captain  Cart- 
wright.  Twelve  thousand  tons,  —  nearly  twice 
as  large  as  the  Idaho.  How  will  that  suit  you  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  the  Captain,  dejectedly. 
"  She  can't  fight.  She'll  have  the  battery  of  a 
gunboat.  I  don't  want  a  great  hulk  of  a  ship 
that  will  have  to  turn  tail  and  run  from  a 
cruiser  a  third  her  size.  She's  only  good  to 
chase  merchantmen  and  get  prize  money." 

"  Some  people  don't  regard  prize  money  as 
a  matter  altogether  beneath  their  notice," 
observed  the  Secretary. 

"  Give  them  the  commerce  destroyers,  then. 
What  I  want  is  a  fighting  ship." 

The  Secretary  glanced  over  some  memoranda 
which  he  drew  from  a  pigeonhole  of  his  desk. 

"  How  would  a  coast  defence  vessel  suit  you, 
carrying  the  biggest  guns  afloat  ?  " 

"  Where  is  she  ?  " 

"  At  San  Francisco." 

"  Good  God,  no  !  What  can  she  do  at  San 
Francisco  ? " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    215 

"  If  the  Spanish  fleet  in  the  Philippines 
should  defeat  our  Asiatic  squadron  and  attack 
the  Pacific  coast  —  " 

"  Not  one  chance  in  a  thousand." 

"  Well,  there  is  just  one  other  thing,"  said  the 
Secretary,  with  an  accent  of  finality.  "  There 
is  the  Portland,  now  at  Hong  Kong.  I  got  a 
telegram  this  morning  stating  that  her  captain  has 
been  invalided  home  and  that  she, is  temporarily 
in  the  command  of  the  executive  officer." 

"  But  I  don't  want  to  go  out  there,"  pleaded 
Captain  Cartwright.  "  All  the  heavy  fighting 
will  be  oflf  the  coast  of  Cuba." 

"  There  will  be  plenty  of  fighting  in  the 
Pacific." 

"  A  mere  side  issue." 

"  Here  are  some  memoranda  concerning  the 
Spanish  fleet  in  the  Philippines  and  the  defences 
of  Manila.  You  might  look  them  over  and  let 
me  know  in  half  an  hour  what  you  have  de- 
cided on.  You  will  see  that  the  contending 
fleets  are  not  unevenly  matched,  and  on  the 
outcome  of  the  battle  to  be  fought  there  de- 
pends the  safety  of  the  Pacific  coast." 


2i6     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Captain  Cartwright  and  the  Chief  of  Bureau 
had  risen  to  their  feet. 

"  I  don't  need  to  spend  half  an  hour  de- 
ciding, Mr.  Secretary.  If  I  can't  keep  the 
Idaho,  or  have  another  fighting  ship  in  the 
North  Atlantic  Squadron,  I  will  take  the  Port- 
land. She  is  too  small  for  my  rank  and  not 
very  new,  and  I  don't  think  there's  any  glory 
to  be  gotten  -in  the  Philippines.  But  there's 

honest   work    to    be    done   as  far   as  it  goes, 

\ 
and    somebody    has    to    play    second    fiddle. 

The  only  thing  I  am  afraid  of  is,  that  war 
will  be  declared  and  the  fleet  sail  from  Hong 
Kong  before  I  get  there." 

"  I  think  not.  Not  if  we  can  help  it.  It 
is  very  important  that  the  Baltimore  should 
reach  the  squadron  with  ammunition,  and  she 
won't  be  arriving  for  at  least  a  month  yet. 
You  can  take  the  first  mail  steamer  from  San 
Francisco,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Your  orders  will  be  made  out." 

"  I  congratulate  you,  Borgia,"  said  the  Chief 
of  Bureau,  as  they  passed  out  together.  "  The 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    217 

Commodore's  a  fighter.  You'll  have  plenty 
of  fun  out  there." 

The  Captain  shook  his  head  sadly. 

"  It  was  the  best  I  could  do,  but  there's 
not  much  in  it,"  he  observed  regretfully. 
"  Small  ships,  small  fleets,  small  issues,  —  a 
mere  incident  in  the  drama.  But  it's  better 
than  nothing." 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

SOMEWHAT  to  Captain  Cartwright's 
surprise  and  very  much  to  his  delight, 
his  wife  announced  her  intention  of 
going  with  him  as  far  as  Hong  Kong.  They 
had  forty-eight  hours  to  spare  before  start- 
ing overland,  which  Mrs.  Cartwright  declared 
would  give  her  ample  time  for  packing,  as 
they  were  already  living  in  trunks  at  a  hotel. 
She  not  only  made  good  her  boast  and  had 
everything  ready  inside  the  time  limit,  but 
was  able  to  get  off  a  train  ahead  of  her  hus- 
band and  stop  over  a  few  hours  in  Albany 
to  let  Wriggles's  paternal  grandparents  have 
a  parting  glimpse  of  him. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  rather  resented  the  exist- 
ence of  this  superfluous  set  of  grandparents, 
but  she  tried  to  do  her  duty  by  them.  It 

was    especially   magnanimous   of  her    to    visit 

218 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    219 

them  now,  because  she  clearly  foresaw  that  the 
other  grandmother  would  give  her  trouble. 
Old  Mrs.  Whittemore  did,  in  fact,  strenuously 
object  to  Wriggles's  setting  out  for  the  Orient, 
and  was  unreasonable  enough  to  propose,  with 
some  insistence,  that  he  should  be  left  with 
her. 

Wriggles's  father  was  on  a  ship  in  Euro- 
pean waters,  exact  locality  unknown,  and  could 
not  be  consulted.  But  his  handing  over  his 
baby  boy,  at  Elizabeth's  request,  to  the  up- 
bringing of  Elizabeth's  mother  had  been  abso- 
lute. His  own  mother  was,  therefore,  at  a 
disadvantage,  and  could  only  plead  the  child's 
best  good,  as  she  saw  it,  and  the  risk  of  tak- 
ing him  to  such  remote,  outlandish  countries. 

Now  Elizabeth  had  been  around  the  world 
before  she  cut  her  milk  teeth,  and  from  Mrs. 
Cartwright's  point  of  view  steamers  and  trains 
and  hotels  were  as  good  places  as  any  other 
to  bring  up  a  child  in,  if  only  one  used  suffi- 
cient zeal  and  discretion.  So  she  brushed 
aside  the  views  of  the  stay-at-home  grand- 
mother and  laughed  at  her  foolish  alarms. 


220     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Mrs.  Whittemore,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
sidered Mrs.  Cartwright  so  erratic  in  her 
manner  of  life  and  thought  as  to  be  barely 
respectable.  For  a  woman  past  fifty  to  start 
off  on  forty-eight  hours'  notice  to  the  antip- 
odes seemed  to  her  almost  indelicate,  and 
when  she  must  needs  take  her  poor  little 
four-year-old  grandson  along  with  her,  the 
vagary  became  positively  criminal. 

Added  to  the  ordinary  dangers  of  travel 
were  the  war  risks  which  seemed  to  be  immi- 
nent. Supposing  war  was  declared  while  they 
were  at  sea,  and  their  ship  was  captured  by 
a  Spanish  man-of-war,  or,  worse  still,  by  a 
Spanish  privateer?  In  vain  Mrs.  Cartwright 
explained  that  the  steamer  on  which  their 
passage  was  engaged  flew  the  British  flag  and 
was  owned  in  Liverpool.  A  trifling  techni- 
cality of  that  sort  could  not  blot  out  the 
lurid  pictures  conjured  up  by  grandmotherly 
fear. 

Train-time  found  them,  however,  duly  en- 
sconced in  the  overland  limited,  with  the 
Captain  at  their  side,  and  the  poor  overruled 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    221 

paternal  grandparents  forlornly  waving  their 
handkerchiefs  from  the  platform. 

Up  to  this  time  Wriggles  had  done  very 
little  travelling,  but  the  instincts  of  the  rover 
were  in  his  blood,  and  he  took  to  it  like  a 
duck  to  water,  adapting  himself  with  cheerful 
philosophy  to  the  most  unpropitious  circum- 
stances. His  good  nature  was  proof  against 
every  inversion  of  his  habits,  whether  in  sleep- 
ing or  dressing  arrangements,  in  bills-of-fare, 
or  times'  and  seasons.  His  interest  in  chang- 
ing scenes  and  faces  was  unfailing,  but  quiet 
and  dignified.  Nothing  surprised  him,  though 
everything  interested  him.  There  was  not  a 
single  drop  of  provincialism  in  his  blood. 
He  was  born  a  child  of  the  world.  He  fra- 
ternized in  ready  friendliness  with  conductors, 
brakemen,  porters,  and  fellow-passengers,  then 
with  officers  and  sailors  and  Chinese  cabin- 
boys,  and  later  still  with  the  many-hued 
denizens  of  the  Orient.  He  had  no  preju- 
dices of  caste  or  race  or  color. 

"Nil  humanum  a  se  alienum  putat"  Captain 
Cartwright  adapted  laboriously. 


222     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE  SERVICE 

His  wife  always  laughed  at  him  for  the 
affection  with  which  he  clung  to  his  rusty 
Latin,  left  over  from  the  days  before  he  en- 
tered the  Naval  Academy. 

Wriggles  regarded  all  men  as  potential 
friends,  and  seldom  found  his  confidence  mis- 
placed. But  there  was  an  Englishman  aboard 
the  steamer  who  thought  to  tease  him  by  tell- 
ing him  how  the  Spaniards  were  going  to  "  lick 
the  Yankees  "  in  the  prospective  war.  Wrig- 
gles tried  to  convince  him  of  error  by  earnest 
argument,  till,  finding  his  protestations  ignored, 
and  stung  by  the  jeering  tone  of  his  tormentor, 
he  suddenly  flew  at  him,  tooth  and  nail,  like  a 
little  fury,  and  had  to  be  dragged  away  by  main 
force.  He  was  punished  for  conduct  unbecom- 
ing an  officer  and  a  gentleman ;  but,  in  view 
of  the  circumstances,  he  was  not  required  to 
apologize,  merely  to  promise  his  grandmother 
that  there  would  be  no  more  violence.  There 
was  none,  but  he  never  passed  the  obnoxious 
Englishman  on  deck  or  stairway  without  pro- 
truding his  lower  lip  at  him,  as  a  sign  —  and  a 
very  expressive  one  —  of  disapproval.  No 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    223 

amount  of  punishment  could  persuade  him., to 
give  up  this  habit,  and  his  grandparents  finally 
adopted  the  practice  of  looking  the  other  way. 

It  was  more  than  twenty  years  since  Mrs. 
Cartwright  had  crossed  the  Pacific.  The  Cap- 
tain had  made  a  three  years'  cruise  at  that  time 
on  the  Asiatic  station,  and  she  and  Elizabeth 
had  followed  him.  It  had  been  a  very  delight- 
ful epoch  in  many  ways,  and  Mrs.  Cartwright 
had  always  cherished  its  memories,  without  any 
expectation  of  renewing  them.  But  now  she 
"  'card  the  East  a-callin' '  and  experienced 
strange  thrills  at  the  mere  substitution  of 
tiffin  for  luncheon  and  the  sound  of  the  dear 
ridiculous  Pidjin  English  that  she  had  to 
babble  at  the  servants.  Every  day  that 
brought  them  nearer  to  the  Japanese  coast 
increased  her  excitement  and  enthusiasm. 

"  She's  like  an  old  race-horse  brought  back 
on  the  track  again,"  thought  the  Captain,  ad- 
miringly ;  but  he  took  good  care  not  to  put  his 
thought  into  words,  well  knowing  how  his  wife 
would  receive  such  a  comparison. 

"  It  will  seem  like  being  young  again,  to  be 


224     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

fallowing  a  ship  with  a  little  child,  Julius,"  she 
said. 

"After  all,  I  believe  you  like  the  life,"  he 
returned,  smiling  at  her. 

"In  spite  of  the  way  I  abuse  it?  Yes,  I 
suppose  I  must." 

They  both  felt  the  sadness  of  its  being 
Elizabeth's  child,  not  Elizabeth,  who  was  the 
companion  of  their  travels ;  but  it  was  charac- 
teristic of  them  that  they  made  no  reference  to 
what  occupied  the  foremost  place  in  their 
minds.  The  loss  of  a  child  is  like  the  loss  of 
a  leg.  One  must  go  through  life  thereafter 
maimed.  But  the  brave-hearted  cripple  makes 
the  best  of  his  crutches  and  alludes  to  them  as 
seldom  as  may  be. 

Mrs.  Cartwright's  was  the  universal  mother- 
grief,  —  primitive,  instinctive,  primarily  im- 
personal, because  it  was  her  child  that  was  dead, 
only  secondarily  because  it  was  Elizabeth. 
With  her  husband,  the  order  was  reversed. 
It  was  first  and  foremost  his  good  comrade, 
the  always  understood,  always  understanding 
Elizabeth  that  he  mourned,  and  after  that 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    225 

his  daughter.  With  both  of  them,  their 
loss  was  an  ever-present  load  carried  on  hearts 
strong  enough  to  bend  under  it  without  break- 
ing, sweet  enough  not  to  be  embittered  by  the 
gall  of  sorrow,  large  and  just  enough  to  look  at 
the  world  sanely  as  before  and  to  sympathize 
with  the  happiness  of  others. 

The  weather,  though  cold  at  times,  was  rea- 
sonably good  all  the  way  from  San  Francisco 
to  Yokohama.  Seasickness  was  a  thing  as  un- 
known to  Mrs.  Cartwright  as  to  her  husband  ; 
and  Wriggles,  after  the  first  day  out,  proved 
equally  exempt.  To  be  travelling  together,  in- 
stead of  one  on  a  man-of-war  and  the  other  on 
the  next  mail  steamer,  was  a  luxury  entirely  new 
in  their  experience.  Had  it  not  been  for  the 
expected  war,  they  would  have  asked  nothing 
better  than  to  prolong  the  trip  indefinitely. 
As  it  was,  they  could  hardly  control  their  im- 
patience to  reach  Yokohama  and  be  in  cable 
communication  with  the  world  once  more. 
Their  constant  fear  was  that  war  might  be 
declared,  and  the  fleet  sail  for  the  Philippines 
before  the  Captain  could  get  to  his  ship.  Mrs. 


226     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Cartwright,  who  always  did  everything  in  a 
hurry  herself,  credited  governments  with  some- 
thing of  her  own  temperament,  and  did  not 
see  how  war  could  be  avoided  so  long.  The 
Captain,  on  the  other  hand,  knowing  the 
necessity  for  delay  on  account  of  the  unpre- 
pared state  of  the  country,  had  more  faith  in 
being  on  time.  And  even  if  war  should  be 
declared,  he  felt  reasonably  sure  that,  although 
the  fleet  would  have  to  leave  Hong  Kong,  it 
would  wait  in  some  near-by  Chinese  port  till 
the  Baltimore  arrived  with  its  much-needed 
ammunition. 

The  Captain's  nervousness  showed  only  in 
his  perpetual  tramping  up  and  down  the  deck, 
his  wife's  in  every  word  and  tone  and  move- 
ment. 

They  hailed  the  peak  of  Fuji,  shining  above 
the  clouds,  as  an  old  friend,  sacred  with  mem- 
ories of  the  time  when  they  and  the  world  were 
young.  But  Mrs.  Cartwright,  at  least,  was  in- 
clined to  rail  at  the  impassive  cone  for  not 
flashing  them  a  message  from  Washington. 

Their  approach  to  the  coast  and  progress  up 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    227 

the  Bay  of  Tokio  seemed  interminable,  al- 
though broken  here  and  there  by  the  recogni- 
tion of  some  familiar  landmark.  That  little 
village  to  the  left  should  be  LJraga,  where  they 
make  the  sweet  mizu-ame  that  Elizabeth  used 
to  be  so  fond  of.  That  other  mountain  peak, 
lesser  than  Fuji,  but  nearer,  was  O-Yama,  of 
course.  About  yonder,  Tomioka  must  lie, 
where  the  beach  was  so  nice  for  bathing,  and 
the  crooked  pine  tree  in  front  of  the  tea  house 
was  too  good  to  be  true.  There  was  Missis- 
sippi Bay  opening  up,  and  just  inside  the 
western  horn  they  could  make  out  the  thatched 
roofs  of  Sugita,  famous  for  its  plum  blossoms. 
They  rounded  Treaty  Point,  the  new  Yoko- 
hama breakwater  caught  their  attention,  and 
then,  at  last,  they  slowed  down  to  let  the 
neatly  uniformed  Japanese  health  officers  come 
aboard. 

Every  one  pressed  around  them  for  news. 
Had  the  war  begun  ? 

"  No,  it  is  not  suppose  there  shall  be  war," 
said  the  one  who  spoke  English.  "  There 
shall  be  mediation  of  the  Pope." 


228     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

"  So  far  so  good,"  exclaimed  the  Captain, 
drawing  in  a  long  breath  of  relief.  His  wife's 
face  was  wreathed  in  smiles.  They  did  not 
expect  the  Pope  to  avert  the  war,  but  that  he 
should  be  able  to  postpone  it  suited  them 
admirably. 

With  minds  relieved  on  this  point,  they 
gave  themselves  up  to  the  pleasures  of  reminis- 
cence. Had  he  been  alone,  the  Captain  would 
probably  have  sat  on  the  deck  of  the  steamer, 
smoked  a  cigar,  and  sunk  himself  fathoms  deep 
in  old  memories.  But  under  his  wife's  more 
energetic  guidance,  every  moment  of  the  pre- 
cious day  the  steamer  lay  in  Yokohama  became 
a  pilgrimage.  Mrs.  Cartwright  meant,  not 
only  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  old  life  herself 
and  share  it  with  her  husband,  but  to  introduce 
it  to  Wriggles.  Old  friends  were  notified,  old 
servants  summoned,  old  haunts  revisited. 

"  Wriggles,  this  was  your  mother's  amah" 
his  grandmother  told  him,  as  a  wrinkled, 
parchment-skinned  old  crone,  with  the  shiny, 
black-stained  teeth  of  other  days,  was  brought 
in,  bowing  and  smiling  and  sucking  in  her 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    229 

breath.  She  was  doubtless  younger  than  Mrs. 
Cartwright,  but  she  had  the  look  of  incalculable 
antiquity. 

Wriggles  shivered  a  little  at  the  black  teeth 
and  general  strangeness  of  manner  and  cos- 
tume, but  he  pulled  himself  together  manfully, 
and  let  the  old  woman  on  her  knees  before 
him  pat  and  handle  him  lovingly,  while  she 
lamented  over  the  death  of  the  young  mother, 
whom  she  had  tended  so  faithfully,  and  re- 
joiced over  the  sight  of  the  old  "masta"  and 
"  missus." 

"  Wriggles,  this  was  our  bungalow,  where 
we  lived.  Here  was  the  old  nursery.  Your 
mother's  little  crib  stood  right  there.  All 
that  two-story  part  has  been  built  since,  and 
everything  is  quite  different,  —  quite  differ- 
ent. Your  mother  used  to  play  in  the  gar- 
den, with  the  amah  to  watch  her,  and  I  believe 
this  is  the  very  palm  that  she  planted  on  her 
five-year-old  birthday.  Isn't  it,  Julius?  It's 
grown  so,  it's  hard  to  say,  but  it  was  that  kind 
of  a  palm,  and  in  that  identical  spot." 

"  Wriggles,  this  is  the  mother  of  the  little 


230     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

English  girl  who  was  your  mother's  best 
friend  when  we  lived  here.  They  never 
quarrelled  but  once,  —  the  time  they  fell  to 
discussing  whether  the  English  or  the  Ameri- 
cans came  out  ahead  in  the  War  of  1812,  and 
then  they  pulled  each  other's  hair  frightfully. 
Do  you  remember  ?  " 

The  mothers  laughed  together  reminiscently. 

"Wriggles,  that's  the  little  temple  your 
mother  ran  away  from  the  amah  to  visit. 
She  had  us  hunting  frantically  all  over  the 
neighborhood  for  a  couple  of  hours,  till  we 
found  her  there  sitting  on  the  floor  back  of 
the  altar  between  a  couple  of  Buddhist  priests, 
sharing  their  midday  meal  of  boiled  rice  and 
pickled  daikon" 

They  went  inside,  and  the  stolid-faced  aco- 
lyte, who  eyed  them  suspiciously,  wondered 
why  the  foreign  lady  threw  a  silver  piece 
among  the  copper  offerings  on  the  mat  in 
front  of  the  altar. 

It  grieved  Mrs.  Cartwright  that  they  could 
not  run  up  to  Tokio,  which  she  had  been 
exceedingly  fond  of  in  the  old  days ;  but  noth- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    231 

ing  in  the  world  would  have  induced  her  to 
wait  over  for  another  steamer,  as  her  husband 
suggested. 

"  No,  I  go  with  you  as  far  as  I  can,  Julius," 
she  said.  "  I'd  go  all  the  way  to  Manila  if  I 
could,  you  know.  I  don't  want  to  go  back  to 
Tokio  without  you,  anyhow." 

"  Oh,  I'd  be  afraid  to  go  there  with  you  if 
I  could,"  he  laughed ;  "  afraid  you'd  make  me 
visit  the  graves  of  the  Forty-seven  Ronins." 

"  I  certainly  would ! "  she  assured  him. 
"  I  shall  never  get  over  wondering  at  your 
prosaic  nature.  Our  last  day  in  Tokio, — 
and  you  preferred  smoking  a  cigar  and  taking 
a  nap  to  making  a  pilgrimage  to  the  most 
sacred  spot  in  all  Japan !  " 

"  But  I  was  sleepy,  my  dear  madam,"  he 
urged,  "and  I  knew  you  had  seen  it  already. 
I  wasn't  depriving  you  of  anything." 

"  Sleepy,"  she  repeated  scornfully,  "  when 
you  might  never  again  have  the  chance  to 
light  a  taper  and  leave  a  visiting  card  at  a 
shrine  so  celebrated  in  song  and  story  ! " 

But  her  scorn  was  merely  humorous.     She 


232     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

had  long  since  accepted  her  husband's  limita- 
tions as  part  of  himself,  and  had  even  become 
attached  to  them.  Had  he  suddenly  devel- 
oped a  fondness  for  sight-seeing  equal  to  her 
own,  it  would  probably  have  struck  her  as 
incongruous,  if  not  unseemly. 

At  Kobe,  at  Nagasaki,  and  at  Shanghai,  the 
experience  at  Yokohama  was  repeated.  First, 
the  anxiety  lest  war  had  been  declared  and  the 
intense  relief  that  it  had  not,  then  the  joyful 
abandonment  of  themselves  to  hunting  up  old 
friends  and  old  places. 

Not  that  the  result  of  the  search  was  always 
joyful.  They  had  often  to  grieve  over  the 
modern  improvements  that  were  spoiling  the 
old-time  picturesqueness.  They  were  deeply 
distressed  when  they  found  the  house  they 
had  lived  in  at  Nagasaki  had  been  pulled 
down  to  make  room  for  a  more  pretentious 
structure.  But  saddest  of  all,  of  course,  were 
the  human  changes.  When  they  saw  faces 
and  heard  voices  that  they  had  not  thought 
of,  perhaps,  for  twenty  years,  and  opened  the 
later  chapters  of  life-stories  whose  early  ones 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    233 

were  familiar  to  them,  they  must  expect  to 
learn  not  only  of  births  and  marriages,  pros- 
perity and  happiness,  but  of  failure  and  misery, 
of  death,  and  here  and  there  of  a  catastrophe 
worse  than  death.  Yet,  after  all,  the  demands 
made  on  their  sympathy  were  superficial,  and 
the  delicate  seasoning  of  melancholy  served 
but  to  heighten  the  flavor  of  this  wonderful 
pot-pourri  of  old  associations. 

"  I  wouldn't  have  missed  all  these  experi- 
ences for  anything  in  the  world,  Julius ! " 
Mrs.  Cartwright  exclaimed,  as  the  low  Yang- 
tse  banks  dropped  out  of  sight,  leaving  no 
sign  of  the  China  they  had  just  revisited  ex- 
cept the  muddy  color  of  the  water,  defiled  by 
the  outpouring  of  the  great  foul  river. 

This  was  the  last  stage  of  their  journey. 
Two  days  later  they  had  passed  Waglan 
Island  and  were  drawing  near  to  the  familiar 
blue  hills  of  Hong  Kong.  They  threaded 
their  way  through  Lyemoon  Pass,  and  all  at 
once  the  harbor  opened  before  them. 

Captain  Cartwright  stood  on  the  bridge, 
whither  the  captain  of  the  steamer  had  in- 


234     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

vited  him,  glasses  in  hand,  eagerly  scanning 
the  forest  of  masts  toward  which  they  were 
shaping  their  course.  Mrs.  Cartwright  and 
Wriggles  were  on  the  deck  just  below. 

"  There  they  are ! "  Captain  Cartwright 
cried  suddenly,  —  "and,  by  heaven,  they're 
gray  !  They've  got  their  war-paint  on." 

His  wife  smiled  up  at  him,  her  eyes  full  of 
tears.  If  he  had  been  beside  her,  she  would 
have  squeezed  his  hand,  but  she  could  not 
trust  herself  to  speak. 

And  here  was  Wriggles  tugging  at  her  skirt 
and  looking  into  her  face  with  kindling  eyes. 

"  Oh,  aren't  we  glad,  Gran'mudder,  aren't 
we  glad!" 


CHAPTER   XIX 

I 

SUE,  down  on  Rivington  Street,  did  not 
at  first  believe   there  was    going    to    be 
any    war.       Rivington    Street    did    not 
greatly  concern  itself  with  the  outside  world. 
Its    own  daily   battle  for  enough   to   eat  and 
drink  was  altogether  too  absorbing. 

Some  of  the  boys  who  came  to  the  clubs 
expressed  bloodthirsty  sentiments  toward 
dagoes  in  general  and  those  who  blew  up 
the  Maine  in  particular,  and  grew  excited  in 
describing  what  they  would  like  to  do.  Sue 
tried  to  convince  them  that  revenge  as  a 
motive  smacked  of  barbarism,  and  that  if 
there  should  be  a  war,  it  would  be  undertaken 
in  defence  of  the  downtrodden  Cubans  and 
not  to  avenge  the  Maine.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  boys  were  convinced,  and  Sue's 
own  convictions  began  to  waver  after  one  or 

235 


236     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

two  afternoons  spent  with  Mrs.  Cartwright, 
listening  to  her  impassioned  denunciations 
and  to  the  quieter  but  equally  intense  views 
of  the  Captain. 

Then  the  Duluth,  which  had  been  away  on 
a  couple  of  months'  cruise,  returned  to  the 
yard,  and  Mr.  McMasters  came  down  to  call. 
Before  she  fully  realized  his  intentions,  he  was 
conducting  a  patriotic  rally  and  had  the  boys 
singing  everything  from  "Hail  Columbia"  to 
the  latest  adaptation  known  as  "  Marching 
through  Cuba."  As  a  result  of  that  evening's 
work,  he  carried  off  to  the  recruiting  office 
three  apprentice  boys,  two  landsmen,  and  a 
marine. 

Before  she  knew  it  Sue  found  herself  swept 
into  the  full  tide  of  popular  enthusiasm  and 
leading  patriotic  rallies  herself.  Mr.  Mc- 
Masters's  technical  explanations  of  the  evidence 
before  the  court  of  inquiry  convinced  her  that 
the  Maine  had  been  destroyed  by  an  outside 
agency.  And,  little  by  little,  she  found  the 
virile  blood  of  her  pioneer  forebears  asserting 
itself  against  the  acquired  doctrines  of  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    237 

barbarism  of  war  and  the  unworthiness  of 
revenge,  until  she  was  passionately  convinced 
that  peace  could  be  bought  only  at  the  price 
of  national  dishonor,  and  that  war,  hideous  as 
it  was,  was  the  lesser  evil  of  the  two. 

About  this  time  Barbara  came  down  to  New 
York  for  spring  shopping.  Her  interest  in 
spring  shopping  was  weak,  but  the  idea  was 
her  mother's.  She  was  too  late  to  see  the 
Cartwrights,  who  had  left  a  fortnight  before, 
but  she  lost  no  time  in  hunting  up  Sue.  Even 
in  the  enthusiastic  delight  of  their  first  meet- 
ing Sue  could  not  rid  herself  of  a  faint,  inde- 
finable impression  of  aloofness  about  Barbara. 
She  laid  it  to  the  two  years  that  had  elapsed 
since  they  were  together,  —  an  interval  only 
imperfectly  bridged  by  letters,  —  and  assured 
herself  that  it  would  quickly  disappear  in  the 
renewed  intimacy  of  face-to-face  talks.  But 
she  was  never  quite  sure  that  it  had  done  so. 

Barbara  was  one  of  those  who  felt  that  the 
coming  war  was  a  thing  of  unmixed  evil.  She 
had  been  brought  up  to  a  warm  admiration 
for  Spain,  not  only  as  the  most  faithful  of 


238     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

nations  in  a  degenerate  age,  from  the  stand- 
point of  Catholicism,  but  on  account  of  its 
great  historical  achievements.  She  was  rankly 
incredulous,  not  only  of  the  outside  destruc- 
tion of  the  Maine,  but  of  the  cruelties  and 
atrocities  reported  in  the  newspapers  as  prac- 
tised on  the  Cubans.  Even  the  senatorial  and 
consular  reports  on  the  reconcentration  camps 
could  not  shake  her  faith  in  Spanish  humanity. 

"  If  you  had  only  got  here  before  the  Cap- 
tain left,  he  would  have  convinced  you,"  Sue 
told  her. 

"  He  would  have  convinced  me  that  his  con- 
victions are  honest,  but  I  know  that  already." 

"  Wait  till  you've  talked  to  Mr.  McMasters 
a  bit." 

Barbara  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Sue,  you  are  navy  mad,"  she  asserted. 
"  It's  natural  enough  they  should  feel  as  they 
do.  It's  their  business  to  fight.  They're 
fine  fellows  and  brave  and  honest,  and  I  like 
them  almost  as  well  as  you  do ;  but  they're 
too  much  mixed  up  in  it  to  be  good  judges 
of  the  ethics  of  the  situation." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    239 

Sure  enough,  Mr.  McMasters  had  no  more 
effect  on  her  convictions  than  Sue  had  had. 

"It's  your  circulation  that's  at  fault,"  com- 
mented Sue.  "  If  you  had  a  good  one,  you'd 
be  as  belligerent  as  the  rest  of  us." 

"Then  I  thank  God  for  my  poor  cir- 
culation," Barbara  returned  with  unexpected 
seriousness. 

If  Barbara  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the 
war  enthusiasm  of  her  naval  friends  and  of 
the  general  public,  she  was  equally  unrespon- 
sive, even  frankly  disapproving,  toward  the 
work  Sue  was  so  much  absorbed  in  at  the 
Settlement. 

"  You're  wrong  in  your  first  principles,"  she 
said  to  Sue.  "  The  curse  of  our  age  is  its  so- 
called  humanitarianism.  You  are  all  trying 
to  substitute  the  service  of  man  for  the  wor- 
ship of  God.  You're  so  busy  giving  out 
socks  and  potatoes  that  you  pay  no  attention 
to  anybody's  soul,  —  not  even  your  own." 

"  We  don't  give  out  socks  and  potatoes," 
protested  Sue,  but  Barbara  ignored  the  inter- 
ruption. 


240     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Charity  is  a  virtue  in  its  proper  place," 
she  continued,  "  but  it  can't  be  substituted 
for  faith,  and  it  ought  to  be  undertaken  for 
the  love  of  God  and  not  for  the  love  of 
man." 

Sue  looked  at  her  wistfully. 

"  There  isn't  any  use  in  our  discussing  it, 
Barbara.  We're  too  far  apart.  We  haven't 
any  common  ground  to  meet  on.  I  don't 
believe  there's  a  word  left  in  the  English 
language  to  which  we  attach  the  same 
meaning." 

"You're  right.  Discussions  never  do  any 
good.  I  hope  you  won't  mind  if  I  pray  for 
you,  though." 

This  sounded  so  unlike  Barbara  that  Sue 
glanced  at  her  quickly  to  see  if  she  was  joking. 
But  her  face  wore  a  look  of  utter  seriousness. 

"  It  will  be  very  kind  of  you,  I'm  sure," 
Sue  said,  with  a  flicker  of  amusement  in  eyes 
and  voice,  "but  I  doubt  if  it  does  much 
good." 

"  It  certainly  won't,  if  you  take  it  in    th 
spirit,"   Barbara  agreed  with  a  sigh. 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE     241 

"What  in  the  world  has  come  over  her?" 
Sue  wondered.  "  I  never  saw  anybody  so 
changed." 

She  was  not  surprised  to  get  a  note  from 
Barbara  a  few  days  later,  saying  that  she  was 
about  to  go  into  retreat  for  a  week  at  a  con- 
vent just  outside  the  city. 

"  Imagine  that  disembodied  spirit  fasting 
and  praying  when  she  ought  to  be  making 
red  corpuscles  for  her  blood  on  a  diet  of  beef 
juice  and  egg-nog  !  "  she  exclaimed  impatiently 
to  Mr.  McMasters. 

"A  week  of  retreat  from  the  world,  —  of 
fasting  and  prayer  in  a  convent !  What  a 
queer  relic  of  mediaevalism,"  he  mused. 

"  That's  what  she  and  I  called  the  navy 
once,  do  you  remember  ? " 

"  The  first  time  I  met  you,  —  that  evening 
at  the  Cartwrights'.  Yes,  I  remember.  But 
you  were  badly  mistaken.  The  war  spirit  be- 
longs to  all  times." 

"  So  does  the  mortification-of-the-flesh  spirit, 
I  expect,  though  it  never  has  such  a  numer- 
ous following." 


242     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"A  sort  of  succes  d'elite?"  he  suggested, 
smiling. 

"  I  won't  admit  that,"  she  cried.  "  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  it.  It's  morbid.  It's  a 
sign  of  sickliness  either  in  mind  or  body. 
What  could  be  more  beautiful  or  more  won- 
derful than  the  human  body  ?  How  can  re- 
ligious people  despise  and  abuse  it?  Don't 
they  believe  it  to  be  the  handiwork  of  the 
Almighty  ?  Don't  some  of  them  go  so  far 
as  to  say  He  made  it  in  His  own  image  ? 
Doesn't  it  seem  ungracious,  not  to  say  sacri- 
legious to  scorn  such  a  gift  ?  I  can't  see 
any  holiness  in  starving  one's  own  highly 
organized  tissues  so  as  to  make  a  breeding 
place  for  low  and  pestilent  microbes.  Starving 
one's  self  is  as  immoral  as  overfeeding  one's 
self,  and  I've  no  patience  with  that  either." 

"  Do  you  suppose  she  scourges  herself  with 
knotted  cords  and  sleeps  in  a  coffin  ? "  he 
speculated. 

"  Barbara  ?  Not  the  coffin  part.  It's  only 
the  Trappists  who  do  that,  I  believe.  But  for 
the  scourging,  —  of  course  I  don't  know, — 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    243 

but  I  really  shouldn't  be  surprised.  —  Oh,  isn't 
it  dreadful !  "  she  ended  with  sudden  passion. 

"It  seems  so,  and  yet  —  why  should  we 
object  ?  We  all  have  our  favorite  ways  of 
getting  what  somebody  called  the  £  sense  of 
spiritual  uplift '  ;  and  if  that's  hers,  why  I 
suppose  it's  a  good  thing.  If  she  were  married 
and  had  a  family  of  children,  one  might  question 
her  right  to  imperil  her  health,  but  —  " 

"  I  wish  she  were  married  and  had  a  family 
of  children !  It's  just  what  she  needs.  She 
wouldn't  have  time  then  to  be  morbid." 

Sue  was  one  of  the  people  who  speak  first 
and  think  afterwards.  The  following  thought 
in  this  case  brought  a  wave  of  crimson  to  her 
face,  as  she  realized  the  somewhat  unconven- 
tional character  of  what  she  was  saying. 

"  I  don't  know,"  he  replied,  apparently 
unconscious  of  anything  unusual  in  their  dis- 
cussion. "  I  can't  imagine  her  married.  Now 
you  —  " 

He  paused,  with  a  certain  sense  of  dawn- 
ing embarrassment. 

"  Oh,  I  can  always  be  relied  on  to  do  the 


244     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

normal  and  commonplace  thing,  she  returned 
easily. 

"  Never  commonplace,  but  divinely  normal." 

His  voice  was  very  low  and  earnest. 

Sue  looked  at  him  in  blank  surprise.  She 
had  expected  a  very  different  sort  of  response 
to  her  impulsively  expressed  wish  of  a  moment 
before.  She  had  long  been  convinced  of  his 
tenderness  for  Barbara,  but  evidently  he  did 
not  wish  to  confide  in  her.  She  sighed  and 
asked  him  about  a  concert  that  he  was  helping 
the  boys  to  get  up  in  aid  of  the  Maine  vic- 
tims. The  result  to  the  fund  might  not  be 
large,  but  the  spirit  of  lending  a  helping  hand 
was  worth  encouraging. 

A  week  later  Mr.  McMasters  came  around 
hurriedly  to  say  good-by.  The  Duluth  had 
been  ordered  by  telegram  from  Washington 
to  join  the  newly  organized  Flying  Squadron 
at  Fortress  Monroe.  They  had  been  taking 
stores  aboard  all  day  and  would  pull  out  in 
the  morning. 

"  Have  you  seen  Barbara  ? "  Sue  asked. 
"  She's  come  back  to  life,  you  know." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    245 

"  Yes,  I  have  just  come  from  her  aunt's, 
where  she  is  staying  now.  I  expected  to  see 
the  clouds  of  the  other  world  still  trailing 
about  her,  but  she  seemed  just  the  same  as 
ever ;  said  the  same  bright,  double-edged 
things,  and  didn't  soar  a  particle." 

"Oh,  of  course.     Barbara  doesn't  pose.'* 

"  Isn't  the  cynicism  itself  a  pose  ?  " 

"  No,  no.  It's  the  reverse  of  the  medal. 
It's  perfectly  genuine.  It's  part  of  the 
morbidness,  though.  Healthy-minded  people 
aren't  cynical." 

"  What  a  priestess  of  nature  you  are  ! "  he 
exclaimed.  "  If  Miss  Thornhill  is  a  survival 
of  mediaeval  Latinity,  you  are  all  classic  and 
Hellenic." 

"  Barbara  called  me  a  Greek  once.  But 
never  mind  us.  Let's  talk  about  you.  It's 
much  more  interesting.  Think  what  you 
may  have  gone  through  before  we  meet 
again." 

"  I  may  have  gone  through  the  portals  of 
the  next  world,"  he  said,  half  smiling  to  neu- 
tralize the  over-seriousness  of  the  thought. 


246     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Oh,  don't !  "  she  cried,  with  a  catch  in  her 
voice. 

"  I  won't  if  I  can  help  it,"  he  assured  her, 
smiling  broadly  this  time. 

"  I  mean,  don't  talk  about  it.  Of  course  we 
all  know  the  chance  is  there,  but  one  doesn't 
want  to  talk  about  it.'* 

"  It's  good  of  you  to  care  as  much  as  that," 
he  said  gently.  "  I  didn't  suppose  there  was 
anybody  who  did  —  really." 

"  Oh  ! "  she  protested,  as  if  something  had 
hurt  her. 

"  Would  you  think  me  presumptuous  if  I 
asked  you  to  let  me  write  to  you  sometimes  ? " 

Sue  had  recovered  herself. 

"How  can  I  tell  till  you  ask?"  she  ban- 
tered. 

"  I  am  asking  now.     Tell  me." 

"  Why  didn't  you  ask  Barbara  ?  " 

"  I  did,"  he  admitted  frankly,  "  but  she 
turned  me  down.  Said  she  hated  to  write 
letters,  and  didn't  find  any  special  satisfaction 
in  receiving  them.  She  said  people  always 
begin  to  act  a  part  when  they  take  a  pen  in 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    247 

their  hands  —  including  herself  and  myself. 
I  couldn't  convince  her  to  the  contrary." 

Sue  laughed. 

"  Then  you  admit  that  I  am  only  a  second 
choice  ? " 

"Why,  no.  I  intended  to  ask  you  both. 
There's  nothing  wrong  in  that,  is  there  ?  Is  it 
the  custom  in  California  to  correspond  with 
only  one  person  at  a  time  ? " 

"  Now  you  are  laughing  at  me,"  said  Sue, 
with  her  ready  and  always  becoming  wave  of 
color. 

She  felt  rebuked,  for  her  attitude  had  seemed 
to  imply  sentiment  of  the  monopolizing  sort 
in  a  request  for  correspondence,  and  his  words 
made  it  very  plain  that  he  had  meant  nothing 
of  the  kind. 

"  I  don't  agree  with  Barbara,"  she  said, 
"  though  of  course  letter-writing  isn't  as  satis- 
factory as  talking.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to 
have  you  write  to  me,  and  you  must  know  how 
intensely  interested  I  shall  be  in  all  you  can 
tell  me." 

"You'll  get  the  news  quicker  in  the  papers." 


248     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  The  statistics,  yes.  But  it's  the  little  per- 
sonal things  that  make  it  seem  real." 

"  And  you  will  answer  my  letters  ?  " 

"Why,  of  course." 

"  Thank  you.  You  have  made  me  very 
happy." 

She  glanced  at  him  in  surprise.  The  words 
seemed  out  of  proportion  to  the  occasion. 

"  How  I  envy  you  ! "  she  exclaimed,  chang- 
ing the  subject. 

"  Yes,  I  can  understand  that,"  he  replied. 
"  I  believe  you'd  make  a  good  fighter,"  he 
added,  smiling. 

"Why,  I  hope  so,"  she  returned.  "It's 
disgusting  sometimes  to  be  a  woman." 

"  Not  when  the  woman's  you,"  he  protested. 
"  Don't  talk  blasphemy." 

"You  are  going  to  make  history,"  she  went 
on,  ignoring  his  lapse  into  compliment. 

"  Not  much,  personally.    But  the  navy  will." 

"  You  will  do  your  share." 

"  I  shall  do  my  best." 

He  stood  up. 

"  Must  you  go  ?  " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    249 

He  nodded. 

"  I  go  on  watch  at  midnight." 

"  For  how  long  ?  " 

"  Till  four." 

"  And  you  won't  have  time  to  take  a  nap 
first.  You  ought  not  to  have  come.  Or  you 
ought  to  have  gone  away  earlier." 

u  Don't  you  suppose  I  would  rather  talk  to 
you  than  take  a  nap  ? "  he  inquired  in  an 
amused  tone. 

He  had  gone  into  the  hall,  and  was  putting 
on  his  overcoat.  Then  he  picked  up  his  hat, 
gloves,  and  cane. 

"You  know  how  truly  I  wish  you  all  the 
good  fortune  there  is,"  said  Sue,  earnestly, — 
"  personal  safety  first,  then  the  chance  to 
serve  the  country  and  the  reward  of  it, — 
glory  by  the  wagonload,  —  all  there  is  of 
it!" 

"  I  should  be  quite  content  without  the  last, 
and  —  "  he  lowered  his  voice  —  "if  I  know 
myself,  without  the  first." 

He  spoke  hesitatingly,  as  one  more  used  to 
hide  than  to  express  his  emotions. 


250     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  I  know  it,"  she  answered  warmly,  "  but 
you  must  have  all." 

He  was  holding  out  his  hand  silently,  smil- 
ing unsteadily. 

She  laid  hers  in  it,  returning  his  grasp  firmly. 
Her  eyes  suddenly  grew  misty  with  unshed 
tears. 

"  God  bless  you  ! "  she  whispered. 

"  Thank  you,"  he  answered,  in  a  voice  barely 
audible. 

Just  then  one  of  the  other  "  residents " 
appeared  on  the  stairway,  coming  down.  The 
emotion  in  the  air  all  fled  at  the  instant. 

"  Don't  get  sand-bagged  on  your  way  to  the 
elevated,"  Sue  called  to  him  cheerfully,  as  he 
opened  the  front  door. 

"  Try  not  to,"  he  called  back.  "It  would 
be  rather  an  inglorious  wind-up,  wouldn't  it  ?  " 


CHAPTER  XX 

BEAUTIFUL  Hong  Kong!     The  Cart- 
wrights  had  known  it  and  loved  it  of  old, 
but  it  seemed  to  them  lovelier  than  ever 
on  that  April  day,  as  they  steamed  into  the  har- 
bor, and  gazed    their  fill    at   the  mellow   blue 
haze  that  veiled  the  Hong  Kong  heights  to  the 
left  and  the  Kowloon  hills  to  the  right.     Be- 
tween, lay  the  blue  water,  giving  back  a  daz- 
zling reflection  of  the  tropical  sun,  and  over  all 
brooded  the  hot  blue  sky. 

The  fleets  of  many  nations  lay  in  the  harbor, 
among  which  the  American  squadron  looked 
more  distinguished  than  formidable.  A  dozen 
battle  ships  and  cruisers  larger  than  the  Olympia, 
two  or  three  of  them  more  than  double  her  size, 
completely  dwarfed  the  vessels  of  the  American 
fleet  so  far  as  mere  bulk  was  concerned.  With 

their  slim,  graceful  outlines,  they  looked  like  a 

251 


252     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

group  of  grayhounds,  swift  and  high-bred,  but 
by  no  means  fierce. 

"  You've  gone  in  too  much  for  beauty  and 
speed  with  your  ships,"  said  a  fellow-passenger, 
a  retired  English  naval  officer,  to  Captain  Cart- 
wright.  "  They  look  like  yachts.  Of  course 
they're  natty  and  all  that,  but  I'm  afraid  they 
won't  stand  the  strain  of  real  fighting." 

"We  shall  know  more  on  that  subject  this 
time  next  month,"  said  the  Captain,  with  a 
quiet  smile. 

It  was  the  nearest  he  had  ever  come  in  his 
life  to  a  boast. 

Captain  Cartwright  lost  no  time  in  reporting 
his  arrival  to  the  Commodore  and  taking  com- 
mand of  the  Portland.  Every  one  congratu- 
lated him  on  his  good  luck  in  beating  the 
declaration  of  war,  and  every  one  was  glad  to 
see  him,  except  possibly  the  Portland's  first 
lieutenant,  who  thereby  lost  his  chance  of  com- 
manding the  ship  in  action. 

Mrs.  Cartwright,  having  established  herself 
ashore  at  the  hotel,  spent  a  considerable  part  of 
each  day  in  a  canopy-topped  chair  carried  on 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    253 

the  shoulders  of  a  couple  of  coolies.  Some- 
times she  went  to  drink  tea  with  such  of  her 
friends  of  twenty  years  ago  as  were  still  above 
the  sod  and  not  returned  to  the  mother  country. 
Oftener  she  wandered,  for  the  love  of  it,  along 
Kennedy  Road  or  Bowen  Road,  enjoying  the 
vistas  hundreds  of  feet  down  to  the  town  and 
the  harbor,  hundreds  of  feet  up  to  the  Peak, 
framed  by  a  charming  tangle  of  tropical  greenery 
in  the  foreground. 

Wriggles  occasionally  went  with  her,  looking 
at  this  new  world  serenely,  if  a  trifle  condescend- 
ingly, from  the  height  of  his  chair,  or  giving 
lordly  directions  —  the  freshly  acquired  "  man- 
man  "  and  "  chop-chop  "  —  to  his  coolies.  At 
other  times  he  went  to  the  public  gardens 
with  his  small-footed  Chinese  amah,  and  tor- 
mented her  by  running  ahead  faster  than  her 
poor  little  pegs  of  feet  could  carry  her.  It 
seemed  to  fill  him  with  unholy  glee  to  hear  her 
shrill  voice  screaming  after  him. 

"  Masta  Liggle,  Masta  Liggle,  no  do  so 
fashion  !  Amah  no  can  catchee.  Belong  too 
muchee  bad  boy." 


254     THE    SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Or  he  would  scandalize  her  by  fraternizing 
with  one  of  the  black-whiskered,  red-turbaned, 
six-foot  Sikh  policemen,  who  were  the  object  of 
her  special  antipathy,  as  they  were  of  his  most 
fervent  admiration. 

"  What  for  genteeman  son  wantchee  walkee- 
walkee  talkee-talkee  dat  piecee  Moolo  man  ?  " 
she  would  cry  with  infinite  scorn.  "  No  plopa 
fashion.  He  belong  too  muchee  bad  man. 
He  makee  cuttee  head  udder  man.  He  alia 
same  chow-chow  udder  man." 

Wriggles  scoffed  at  these  lurid  tales  and 
thrust  his  hand  confidingly  into  the  hand  of  his 
friend  the  Sikh,  whose  fierce  eyes  softened  as 
they  looked  down  into  the  upturned  face  of  the 
little  sailor  boy  with  its  halo  of  yellow  curls. 
Yet  the  amah's  imputations  of  murder  and 
cannibalism,  disbelieved  as  they  were,  sent 
delicious  creeps  down  his  spine  and  added  a 
touch  of  pleasantly  horrible  mystery  to  the  zest 
of  the  acquaintance. 

Sometimes  the  pheasants  and  the  deer  and 
the  gorgeous  peacock  behind  their  wire  net- 
tings would  hold  him  entranced  by  the  hour. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    255 

Those  were  the  amaJis  happy  moments, 
when  she  could  sit  on  a  bench  and  gossip 
with  the  other  amahs  and  vociferously  abuse 
any  person  of  low  degree  who  presumed  to 
brush  against  her  distinguished  charge. 

There  were  mornings  when  Wriggles  was 
too  much  absorbed  playing  Spanish  war  in  his 
room  at  the  hotel  to  go  out  at  all.  He  used 
all  sorts  of  fleets,  —  nut-shells  in  the  wash- 
basin, folded  paper  boats  on  the  table,  or 
his  grandmother's  shoes  on  the  floor.  But 
though  the  construction  of  the  ships  and  the 
manner  of  the  fight  varied  greatly,  there  was 
never  but  one  end  to  these  battles,  —  the 
complete  annihilation  of  the  Spanish  squad- 
ron. 

"For  quarter,   for  quarter,   the  Spaniard  then  cried  he," 

Wriggles  would  chant,  adapting  to  his  pur- 
pose an  old  navy  song  his  grandfather  had 
taught  him, 

"Blow  high,  blow  low,   for  so  sailed  we. 

*  Oh,    your    ship    shall    be    your    coffin    and    your    grave 

shall  be  the  sea, 
Sailing  down  along  the  coast  of  the  High  Barbaree  ! '  " 


256     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

One  afternoon  Mrs.  Cartwright  took  a 
globe-trotting  steamer  acquaintance  to  the 
French  convent  on  the  road  to  Quarry  Bay, 
to  buy  some  of  the  lace  made  by  the  pupils. 

While  the  sister  was  showing  them  laces, 
Mrs.  Cartwright  grew  reminiscent  over  her 
visits  to  the  convent  twenty  years  before, 
and  inquired  after  several  nuns  she  had 
known  then.  One  of  them,  she  found  to 
her  pleasure,  had  become  Mother  Superior. 
The  rest  were  all  dead  or  moved  to  other 
stations.  Mrs.  Cartwright  expressed  a  desire 
to  see  the  Mother  Superior,  who  received 
her  with  the  utmost  warmth,  kissing  her  on 
both  cheeks.  Nothing  would  do  but  she 
must  go  all  over  the  convent  to  note  the 
improvements.  There  had  been  only  twelve 
girls  in  the  orphan  asylum  then,  there  were 
a  hundred  and  fifty  now.  And  here,  —  did 
Madame  remember  ?  —  was  an  old  blind 
woman,  the  very  same  whose  skill  with  her 
needle  Madame  had  marvelled  over  many 
years  ago.  They  paused  to  exchange  a  few 
remarks  with  the  old  woman.  Did  Madame 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    257 

recall  what  a  poor  little  chapel  they  used  to 
have  ?  She  must  see  the  new  one  and  ad- 
mire the  altar-cloth  embroidered  by  their 
girls,  and  the  statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
donated  by  a  pupil  who  had  made  a  wealthy 
marriage.  And  here  were  the  dormitories 
and  the  washrooms  and  the  kitchen,  all  so 
wonderfully  enlarged  and  improved.  And 
after  their  trip  over  the  convent,  Madame 
and  her  friend  must  not  refuse  to  come  into 
the  Mother  Superior's  little  office  and  have 
a  sip  of  wine. 

All  this,  pleasant  as  it  was,  delayed  them, 
and  it  was  growing  dusk  when  they  got  into 
their  chairs  and  started  for  home.  Had  the 
coolies  been  willing  to  keep  along  the  water 
front,  Mrs.  Cartwright  could  not  have  lost 
her  bearings,  but  they  insisted  on  turning 
into  a  maze  of  back  streets,  to  her  unknown. 
They  spoke  no  English  and  she  no  Chinese. 
She  was  familiar  enough  with  the  method 
of  guiding  one's  bearers,  —  hand  dropped 
sharply  on  right  arm  of  chair  for  a  turn  to  the 
right,  on  left  arm  for  a  turn  to  the  left,  on  both 


258     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

arms  for  a  stop.  But  when  she  tried  thus  to 
guide  them  back  to  the  bund,  they  shook  their 
heads  and  pointed  in  the  direction  they  were 
going,  reiterating  many  things,  no  doubt  inter- 
esting, had  they  only  been  intelligible. 

"  I  suppose  they  are  taking  a  short  cut,"  she 
said  resignedly  to  her  companion.  "  We  may 
as  well  let  them  alone." 

"  They  surely  know  we  want  to  go  back  to 
the  hotel  ? " 

"  Oh,  surely." 

But,  as  they  swung  along  around  one  corner 
after  another,  and  the  darkness  closed  in  over 
them,  and  the  look  of  the  red-placarded 
"  licensed  lodging-houses "  with  their  swarms 
of  Mongolian  inhabitants  grew  more  sordid 
and  forbidding,  and  still  there  was  no  glimpse 
of  Queen's  Road  or  even  of  the  harbor,  both 
women  grew  distinctly  nervous  and  uncom- 
fortable. 

"  Oh,"  cried  Mrs.  Cartwright,  suddenly,  with 
a  note  of  relief  in  her  voice,  "  there  are  two  of 
our  sailors  just  ahead.  Now  we're  all  right." 

"  Surely,"   remonstrated  the   other   woman, 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    259 

"  you  aren't  going  to  speak  to  them  ?  They  may 
have  been  drinking.  They  might  insult  us." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  as  indignant  as  though 
a  reflection  had  been  cast  on  a  member  of  her 
own  family.  In  a  few  swift,  reproachful  words, 
she  informed  her  companion  that  the  men 
who  wore  that  uniform  were  absolutely  to  be 
depended  on.  The  other  woman  looked  slightly 
incredulous,  but  Mrs.  Cartwright  did  not  stop 
for  argument. 

"Won't  you  come  here  a  minute,  please," 
she  cried,  raising  her  voice  sufficiently  to  reach 
the  sailors,  and  at  the  same  time  thumping  vig- 
orously for  the  coolies  to  set  down  her  chair. 

They  lowered  it  to  the  ground,  and  the  two 
sailors  came  up,  surprised,  but  attentive. 

"You're  from  one  of  our  ships,"  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright began.  "  I'm  so  glad  we've  met  you. 
We  don't  know  where  we  are,  and  we're  afraid 
the  coolies  aren't  taking  us  right.  I'm  Mrs. 
Cartwright.  My  husband  is  Captain  Cart- 
wright of  the  Portland." 

"  Yes'm.  We  don't  know  the  town  much 
ourselves.  We've  never  been  ashore  here 


260     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

before.  But  we'll  stay  by  you  and  see  that  those 
pig-tailed  heathen  don't  try  any  tricks.  Where 
is  it  you  want  to  go  ?  That  big  hotel  on  the 
broad  street  near  the  landing?  You  aren't 
heading  right  for  it,  sure.  It  must  be  down 
that  way." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  motioned  her  bearers  to  lift 
up  the  chair  again,  and  the  sailors  stationed 
themselves,  one  by  each  lady.  They  turned 
the  coolies  in  the  direction  in  which  they  de- 
cided Queen's  Road  must  lie  and  urged  them 
forward  with  scant  ceremony.  The  coolies,  so 
wilful  with  the  ladies,  obeyed  the  sailors  with 
alacrity.  They  had  met  that  sort  before. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  entered  into  an  animated 
conversation  with  her  special  escort,  who 
walked  along  beside  her  with  his  hand  on  the 
arm  of  her  chair,  lest  the  bearers  should  try  to 
run  away  from  him.  He  delighted  her  soul  by 
telling  her  that  a  chum  of  his  on  the  Idaho  had 
told  him  Captain  Cartwright  was  the  "  whitest " 
man  he  ever  sailed  with.  Then  they  discussed 
the  prospective  war  and  the  loss  of  the  Maine. 

"  Those  dirty  dagoes  will  wish  they'd  let  the 


THE   SPIRIT  OF   THE   SERVICE    261 

Maine  alone  before  we're  done  with  'em,"  he 
prophesied.  "  You  can't  never  trust  'em.  I've 
sailed  with  'em.  I  know  'em,  —  mean,  treach- 
erous, cowardly  curs,  —  that's  what  they  are ! 
They  don't  fight  with  their  fists  like  Christians. 
They  whip  out  a  knife  on  you.  And  if  they 
can't  get  hold  of  a  knife,  they  bite.  You 
mayn't  believe  me,  Mrs.  Cartwright,  but  I  had 
one  of  'em  bite  my  hand  clear  to  the  bone 
once.  I've  the  scar  of  it  yet.  But  I  wiped 
up  the  deck  with  him  a  bit.  And  we're  goin' 
to  wipe  up  hell  with  the  whole  nation.  Oh,  I 
beg  your  pardon,"  he  broke  off  with  sudden 
confusion.  "  It  slipped  out  before  I  thought." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  absolved  him. 

"  You  don't  think  it's  possible,  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright," he  pleaded,  looking  into  her  eyes  like 
an  earnest  child,  "  that  there  won't  be  no  war 
after  all  ?  You  don't  think  they'll  patch  it  up 
somehow  there  in  Washington  ?  Take  the  in- 
dependence of  Cuba,  or  a  bit  of  an  indemnity, 
or  some  nice-soundin'  apology  or  other,  and 
call  it  square  ?  " 

"I    don't    believe    it's    possible,"    she    said. 


262     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

a  We  couldn't  take  money  or  land  or  words 
in  exchange  for  the  murder  of  our  men." 

"  That's  right,"  he  returned  tensely.  "  It's 
got  to  be  blood,  ain't  it  ?  But  some  of  the 
boys  are  afraid  they  don't  feel  that  way  in 
Washington.  If  I  thought  they'd  juggle  us 
out  of  this  fight,  I'd  be  almost  tempted  "  — 
he  lowered  his  voice  —  "  to  shake  the  service." 

"  Oh,  no,"  she  cried,  horror-struck,  "  not 
that!  I  understand  how  you  feel,  though.  I 
feel  that  way,  too.  But  I  do  believe  the  war 
is  coming  —  as  surely  as  the  sun  will  rise 
to-morrow !  " 

"  It  can't  come  too  soon  for  us,"  he  said 
grimly. 

At  this  moment  they  turned  suddenly  into 
Queen's  Road,  brightly  lighted,  full  of  chairs, 
'rikshas,  and  foot  passengers. 

"  Now  we  are  all  right,"  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Cartwright,  "  and  we  mustn't  keep  you  any 
longer.  We  are  very,  very  much  obliged  for 
your  escort." 

"  We'll  see  you  all  the  way  to  the  hotel,  if 
you  don't  mind,  Mrs.  Cartwright,"  said  the 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE    263 

man  beside  her.  "You  can't  trust  these 
Chinks.  Can't  tell  what  they're  up  to.  They're 
a  good  deal  like  dagoes,  I  guess." 

"  But  we  are  taking  you  very  much  out  of 
your  way." 

"That's  all  right.  We  were  just  prospectin'. 
One  way's  as  good  as  another  to  us.  It  must 
be  pretty  hard  for  a  lady  like  you,  though, 
having  to  live  around  in  such  heathen  places 
as  this." 

"  Weren't  they  charming  ?  "  cried  the  globe- 
trotting lady,  when  they  had  parted  from  their 
body-guard  at  the  door  of  the  hotel.  "  But 
surely  they  aren't  all  like  that  ? " 

"  Oh,  yes  they  are,"  said  Mrs.  Cartwright, 
confidently. 

The  next  day  the  Baltimore  came  in,  and 
those  who  knew  how  short  of  ammunition  the 
fleet  had  been,  breathed  a  long  sigh  of  relief. 

How  they  missed  the  newspapers !  The 
silence  was  like  that  of  the  grave,  broken  only 
by  a  ten-word  Reuter  telegram  now  and  then, 
giving  the  barest  skeletons  of  facts, —  no  details, 
no  explanations. 


264     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

Momentous  events  were  crowding  on  each 
other's  heels.  All  American  residents  had 
been  withdrawn  from  Cuba  for  fear  of  a 
massacre.  That  might  mean  much  or  little. 
The  President  had  sent  a  message  to  Con- 
gress, asking  for  authority  to  use  the  army 
and  navy  to  end  the  war  in  Cuba.  Was  it 
granted  or  not  ?  The  telegrams  gave  no  hint. 
The  Spanish  minister  at  Washington  had  asked 
for  his  passports.  The  President  was  prepar- 
ing an  ultimatum.  What  became  of  it  ? 
Nothing  more  was  said.  But  there  followed 
the  departure  of  the  American  minister  from 
Madrid,  the  sailing  of  the  North  Atlantic 
fleet  for  Havana  (surely  that  must  mean  war !), 
the  President's  proclamation  of  the  Cuban 
blockade,  the  President's  call  for  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  volunteers,  and  then, 
at  last,  after  all  those  incredibly  long-drawn- 
out  days,  tense  with  expectation,  war  was  de- 
clared, the  fleet  received  its  orders,  and  the 
Governor,  under  instructions  from  London, 
issued  his  proclamation  of  neutrality. 

It  was  all  hurried  at  the   last,  —  mercifully 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE    265 

so.  Farewells  were  brief,  unspeakably  solemn, 
but  with  no  tears  shed,  —  not  by  the  Cart- 
wrights,  at  all  events. 

From  the  balcony  of  a  friend's  house  on 
the  hillside,  whither  they  had  been  carried  off 
to  spend  a  few  days,  Wriggles  and  his  grand- 
mother watched  the  sailing  of  the  ships  with 
swelling  hearts. 

"  Listen,  Gran'mudder !  It's  the  band  on 
the  Olympia.  They're  playing  (  Star-spangled 
Banner.'  Can't  you  hear  it?  Sing,  Gran'- 
mudder !  Oh,  let's  us  sing,  too  !  " 

Her  voice  faltered  at  first,  but  it  caught 
courage  from  the  childish  treble  beside  her, 
and  rang  out  strong  and  brave. 

"  Oh,  Gran'mudder,"  cried  the  boy,  as 
they  finished  the  last  words,  throwing  his  arms 
around  her  neck  and  hugging  her  convulsively, 
"  don't  you  wish  we  could  go  along  and  fight 
the  Spaniards,  too  ! " 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE  fleet  did  not  sail  immediately  for 
the  Philippines,  but  awaited,  close  at 
hand  in  Mirs  Bay,  the  arrival  of  the 
consul    from    Manila.       He  was    expected   at 
any  moment,  and   it   was    thought   he   might 
bring    important    information    concerning    the 
defences  of  the  city,  the  mining   of  the  har- 
bor,  and    the    whereabouts    of    th.    Spanish 
squadron. 

Mirs  Bay  was  at  that  time  Chinese  territory 
and  not  affected  by  British  proclamations  of 
neutrality.  They  spent  two  uncomfortable 
days  and  nights  there,  with  tightly  strained 
nerves,  keeping  a  vigilant  lookout  for  possible 
attack  by  the  Spanish  fleet  or  by  improvised 
torpedo  boats. 

At  last  a  tug  was  sighted,  which  proved  to 
have  the  consul  on  board.  A  consultation 

of  commanding  officers  was  held  on  the  flag- 

266 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE    267 

ship,  the  consul  was  put  aboard  the  Baltimore 
as  a  passenger,  the  mail  was  sent  over  to  the 
tug,  —  with  what  a  mass  of  farewells  to  wives 
and  mothers  and  sweethearts,  who  shall  say  ? 
—  and  at  two  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
ayth  of  April,  the  squadron  steamed  out  to 
sea,  with  the  fighters  in  single  file  and  the 
baggage  vans  on  the  flank. 

All  through  the  fleet  ran  a  tremor  of  ex- 
ultation. For  more  than  two  months,  officers 
and  men  had  been  waiting  in  cumulative  sus- 
pense, eager  to  be  doing,  but  condemned  to 
inaction,  haunted  ever  by  the  American  dread 
that  after  having  been  surprised  into  heroic 
sentiment,  nothing  would  come  of  it. 

We  don't  mind  showing  emotion  on  great 
occasions,  but  if  we  show  it  on  an  occasion 
which  turns  out  not  to  be  great  after  all,  we 
feel  eternally  disgraced.  If  a  war  scare  ma- 
terializes into  a  war,  our  effervescence  is  praise- 
worthy patriotism,  but  if  the  war  scare  blows 
over,  we  laugh  sheepishly  and  try  to  pretend 
that  we  never  waved  our  hats  and  shouted. 
Latin  races  find  a  great  emotion  admirable 


268     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

in  and  for  itself.  Our  attitude  seems  to  be 
that  it  is  pardonable  only  when  it  accompanies 
heroic  action. 

The  flag-ship's  band  was  playing  stirring 
martial  music.  Every  one  was  on  deck,  but 
there  was  not  much  talking.  Each  man  was 
busy  with  his  own  thoughts. 

The  land  sank  out  of  sight,  and  the  sea 
and  sky  divided  the  universe  between  them. 
The  throbbing  engines  were  driving  them  into 
the  warm  blue  South  to  seek  their  fate.  What 
would  it  be  ?  —  defeat  or  victory  ?  —  life  or 
death  ?  There  was  no  middle  ground.  It 
must  be  all  or  nothing.  They  had  no  port 
of  refuge  within  seven  thousand  miles.  De- 
feat meant  destruction.  Repulse  meant  it 
almost  equally.  There  could  be  no  waiting 
to  choose  the  best  time,  no  calm  blockading. 
Their  supply  of  coal,  their  supply  of  provis- 
ions, and  their  supply  of  ammunition  were 
strictly  limited ;  and  if  they  could  not  capture 
more  before  these  were  exhausted, —  they  were 
lost. 

These  facts  were  well  known  to  everybody 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    269 

in  the  fleet,  but  the  knowledge  only  clinched 
their  teeth  tighter  at  the  thought  of  the  coming 
struggle. 

Toward  evening,  as  the  twilight  fell,  bring- 
ing its  inevitable  tinge  of  melancholy,  thoughts 
turned  toward  home  and  eyes  grew  tender 
over  images  of  women  and  children.  Captain 
Cartwright  noted  the  changing  mood  with  a 
certain  disapproval. 

"  It's  the  way  to  feel  for  writing  sonnets, 
but  not  for  going  into  battle.  See  if  you 
can't  shake  them  out  of  it,"  he  said  to  the 
officer  of  the  deck.  "  Send  for  that  musical  pair 
of  marines.  Tell  them  to  go  up  forward  and 
play  —  nothing  sentimental,  something  with  a 
swing  to  it.  Try  to  start  the  men  singing." 

The  spirited  twanging  of  the  banjo  and 
guitar  supplied  just  what  was  needed.  At  the 
first  chords  of  "There'll  be  a  hot  time  in 
the  old  town  to-night,"  the  men  caught  up 
the  air  and  sang  themselves  into  active  en- 
thusiasm again.  Every  evening  thereafter  on 
the  way  over,  the  musicians  were  called  for, 
and  the  southern  seas  were  introduced  to  a 


270     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

singular  medley  of  hand-organ  airs  and 
national  anthems. 

The  first  morning  out,  after  quarters,  in 
obedience  to  a  signal  from  the  flag-ship,  the 
proclamation  of  the  Governor-general  of  the 
Philippines,  brought  over  by  the  consul,  was 
read  aloud  to  the  ship's  company. 

The  officers  had  read  and  discussed  this 
incredible  document  the  night  before  over 
the  wardroom  table,  but  the  crew  were  hear- 
ing its  extraordinary  statements  and  epithets 
for  the  first  time,  and  their  faces  were  a  study. 
It  was  a  curious  bit  of  spiritual  discipline  to 
stand  there  at  attention,  alert,  intelligent,  self- 
respecting,  patriotic  and  American  to  the  fin- 
ger-tips, and  hear  that  "  The  North  American 
people,  constituted  of  all  the  social  excres- 
cences, have  exhausted  our  patience  and  pro- 
voked war  with  their  perfidious  machinations, 
with  their  acts  of  treachery,  with  their  outrages 
against  the  law  of  nations  and  international 
conventions."  Sentence  rolled  upon  sentence, 
each  crammed  with  vituperation,  till  the  abuse 
became  personal  and  they  heard  themselves 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE    271 

described  as  "  A  squadron  manned  by  foreign- 
ers, possessing  neither  instruction  nor  disci- 
pline," whose  "  ruffianly  intention "  was  to 
wipe  out  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  Philip- 
pines, kidnap  the  male  inhabitants  "  to  be 
exploited  in  agricultural  or  industrial  labor," 
and  "  gratify  their  lustful  passions  at  the  cost 
of"  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  com- 
munity. All  of  which,  this  worthy  and  well- 
informed  hidalgo  summed  up  exclamatorily 
as  "  Vain  designs  !  Ridiculous  boastings  !  " 

After  the  last  viva  Espana  and  the  date  and 
signature,  there  was  a  moment  of  perfect 
silence.  The  officer  who  read  the  proclama- 
tion made  no  comments.  The  men  who  lis- 
tened to  it  were  positively  embarrassed,  like 
a  family  of  well-brought-up  children  who 
are  assailed  for  the  first  time  by  a  volley 
of  billingsgate.  Captain  Cartwright  watched 
their  faces  flush  and  pale  as  the  enormity 
of  the  insult  slowly  pierced  their  conscious- 
ness. He  saw  bewilderment  giving  place  to 
indignation.  Then  he  stepped  forward  and 
spoke  to  them. 


272     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  You  see  the  opinion  they  have  of  us  over 
there."  His  words  cut  sharply.  "  I  think 
we  shall  be  able  to  change  it.  And  when 
they  find  how  greatly  they  have  wronged  us, 
I  hope  they  will  understand  that  they  have 
wronged  the  country  which  sent  us." 

The  men  broke  into  a  perfect  tumult  of 
cheering,  and  the  Captain  noted  with  satisfac- 
tion that  the  flood  of  awakening  resentment 
had  been  successfully  turned  into  the  channel 
of  high  resolve. 

The  Captain  spent  his  spare  time,  after 
writing  his  daily  letter  to  his  wife,  in  reading 
up  on  the  history  and  topography  of  the 
Philippines.  He  had  never  visited  the  islands 
before,  and,  indeed,  hardly  a  man  in  the  fleet 
knew  anything  of  the  archipelago  at  first 
hand. 

Very  early  on  the  morning  of  the  joth,  the 
enemy's  country  was  sighted  at  Cape  Bolinao, 
and  three  of  the  ships  were  detached  and  sent 
ahead  to  reconnoiter  Subig  Bay,  where  it  was 
thought  the  Spanish  fleet  might  be  waiting 
for  them. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    273 

Meantime  the  order  was  signalled  "  Clear 
ship  for  action."  They  had  been  doing  it 
all  their  lives  in  play,  but  this  was  the  first 
time  any  of  them,  except  the  half-dozen  vet- 
erans of  the  Civil  War,  had  seen  it  done  in 
earnest.  Boxes,  chests  and  barrels,  paint, 
oil,  all  inflammable  things,  always  marked 
"  overboard "  and  always  before  carefully  re- 
stored to  place  when  the  drill  was  over,  were 
now  given  the  sea  toss,  till  the  water  was 
covered  with  wreckage  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  and  a  passing  ship  might  readily  imag- 
ine the  battle  had  already  been  fought  and 
lost. 

The  scouts  came  back,  reporting  that  the 
enemy's  fleet  was  not  in  Subig  Bay.  Then 
followed  a  conference  of  commanding  officers 
aboard  the  flag-ship.  Captain  Cartwright  re- 
turned, serenely  jubilant. 

"Thank  God,  there's  to  be  no  dawdling," 
he  confided  to  the  executive  officer.  "  We 
are  going  in  to-night." 

"  Over  the  submarine  mines  we  have  heard 
so  much  about  ?  " 


274     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"Very  likely  they  haven't  been  put  in 
place  yet.  You  know  these  manana  people. 
Anyhow,  we  must  take  our  chances." 

"  Who  goes  first  ?  " 

"  The  flag-ship." 

"  If  anything  should  happen  to  the  flag- 
ship, —  the  Commodore  and  fleet  captain, 
that  is,  —  you  would  be  —  " 

"Senior  officer  present." 

"  You  had  thought  of  it  ?  " 

"  I  had  thought  of  it.  But  I  am  not  ex- 
pecting it." 

"  What  would  you  do  ?  " 

"  Go  on  in  and  finish  the  fight.  What 
else?  But,  Selby,  suppose  we  don't  spec- 
ulate any  further.  We'll  meet  emergen- 
cies when  we  get  to  them.  Too  much 
imagination  the  night  before  a  battle  is  a 
bad  thing.  The  power  to  sleep  well  is  better 
than  the  power  to  think  well  just  now." 

He  was  sitting  on  the  poop  with  a  cigar. 
His  legs  were  crossed,  his  cap  was  perched 
on  his  knee,  and  he  was  blowing  smoke  rings 
into  the  air  with  quiet  enjoyment,  Of  course 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    275 

the  thought  passed  through  his  mind  that  it 
might  be  the  last  cigar  he  would  ever  smoke, 
—  indeed,  he  had  treated  himself  to  an  extra 
good  one  out  of  deference  to  it,  —  but  noth- 
ing would  have  induced  him  to  give  utter- 
ance to  such  an  idea.  Many  things  are 
foolish  to  say,  which  are  by  no  means  foolish 
to  think. 

This  time  to-morrow  it  would  all  be  settled. 
If  he  was  destined  to  pass  over  the  divide, 
he  would  find  the  answer  of  the  question  that 
had  tormented  him  for  years,  the  mystery  of 
life  and  death,  the  riddle  of  the  great  Beyond. 
It  would  be  either  nothing  or  something.  If 
nothing,  then  at  least  no  suffering.  If  some- 
thing, then  Elizabeth  would  be  there  too. 
Dear  Elizabeth,  he  could  imagine  her  coming 
to  meet  him !  And  there  was  his  mother, 
who  had  died  when  he  was  a  child,  whose 
image  he  had  enshrined  and  cherished  in  his 
lonely  boyhood  till  it  had  acquired  a  sacred- 
ness  altogether  unearthly.  There  could  be 
no  regret  in  dying  if  he  was  to  meet  those 
two,  Then  he  thought  of  Wriggles  and  of 


276     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

his  wife.  He  had  no  feeling  of  being  essen- 
tial to  the  world.  He  was  a  modest  man 
and  a  philosopher.  He  knew  there  were 
others  who  would  take  up  his  work  and  do 
it  worthily,  —  as  worthily  as  he,  no  doubt. 
Even  Wriggles,  though  his  heart  yearned 
over  the  budding  life,  would  not  greatly  miss 
him.  His  grandmother  would  bring  him  up 
to  be  an  officer  and  a  gentleman.  But  the 
grandmother —  Ah,  there  was  the  one  who 
needed  him !  They  had  been  together  too 
long  to  learn  to  live  apart.  And  Elizabeth 
was  gone.  He  was  the  only  one.  He  must 
stay  with  her  if  he  could. 

"  But  she  will  not  grudge  the  gift  of  my 
life,  if  it  is  needful,"  he  reflected,  and  the 
consciousness  of  her  courage  uplifted  him 
again.  "  What  a  drag  on  a  man's  resolve  it 
must  be  to  have  a  woman  clinging  to  him 
who  will  not  understand,"  he  thought  com- 
passionately. 

Suddenly  he  stood  up  and  tossed  the  cigar 
stump  overboard. 

"  Have    that   general-court-martial   prisoner 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    277 

brought  to  the  mast,"  he  said  to  the  officer 
of  the  deck. 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir,"  replied  the  young  man,  salut- 
ing, but  silently  wondering. 

The  Captain  climbed  down  the  ladder  from 
the  poop  and  approached  the  mainmast,  where 
a  marine  was  leading  a  handcuffed  man,  with 
the  haggard  eyes  and  unkempt  beard  of  long 
days  of  confinement. 

"  Take  the  handcuffs  off,"  said  the  Captain. 

The  man  brought  his  forefinger  to  his  fore- 
head perfunctorily. 

"  Murphy,"  said  the  Captain,  with  the  curi- 
ous blending  of  sternness  and  kindliness  in 
his  voice  that  gave  it  its  distinctive  character, 
"  we  are  going  into  Manila  Bay  to-night.  We 
expect  to  meet  the  Spanish  fleet  early  in  the 
morning.  You  are  an  American  like  the  rest 
of  us.  I  have  no  power  to  remit  your  sen- 
tence, as  you  know,  but  I  am  going  to  make 
you  a  prisoner  at  large  and  let  you  have  your 
share  in  the  fight." 

The  man,  who  had  stood  rather  slouchily 
at  first,  seemed  to  gain  two  inches  in  height 


278     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

as  he  drew  himself  up  to  erectness,  and  his 
eyes  for  the  first  time  met  the  Captain's  with 
their  newly  recovered  self-respect. 

"  Thank  you,  sir,"  he  said  simply,  saluting 
again. 

"  That  was  a  fine  thing  to  do,  sir,"  ex- 
claimed the  officer  of  the  deck,  as  they  walked 
aft  together. 

"  Why,  no,"  returned  the  Captain,  smiling, 
"  it  was  merely  a  rough  attempt  at  justice. 
He  deserved  his  three  months'  imprisonment 
of  course.  But  to  be  kept  out  of  the  fight 
to-morrow  in  addition,  would  make  a  punish- 
ment altogether  disproportionate  to  his  offence. 
The  court  had  no  such  thing  as  that  in  mind. 
I  did  the  best  I  could  to  restore  the  balance." 

He  went  into  the  cabin  and  wrote  a  few 
lines  to  his  wife.  He  was  at  no  time  a  volu- 
minous writer.  Then  he  stood  in  front  of 
the  bookcase  and  took  down  one  volume 
of  the  poets  after  another,  turning  the  famil- 
iar leaves  and  pausing  to  read  a  few  stanzas 
here  and  there,  favorites  of  his  younger  days 
for  the  most  part,  —  Burns  and  Keats  and 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    279 

Shelley.  Last  of  all,  he  opened  Longfellow's 
"  Christus  "  at  the  Finale,  the  wonderful  mon- 
ologue of  Saint  John. 

"The  clashing  of  creeds,  and  the  strife 
Of  the  many  beliefs,  that  in  vain 
Perplex  man's  heart  and  brain, 
Are  naught  but  the  rustle  of  leaves, 
When  the  breath  of  God  upheaves 
The  boughs  of  the  Tree  of  Life, 
And  they  subside  again." 

The  lines  gave  him,  as  they  had  always 
done,  a  vision  of  the  Infinite.  It  was  as 
though  a  door  opened  in  his  soul's  prison- 
house  and  let  him  gaze,  free  for  a  moment 
from  the  bondage  of  Self,  into  the  immensi- 
ties of  Time  and  Space. 

The  swift  moment  of  exaltation  passed, 
but  left  him  with  a  fine  serenity. 

"  Call  me  at  four  bells,"  he  said  to  the 
orderly,  and  lying  down  on  his  bunk  without 
undressing,  was  soon  sleeping  as  soundly  as 
a  child. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

AT  ten   o'clock,  when    the   Captain  ap- 
peared on  deck  again,  refreshed  from 
his  nap,  he  found  a  beautiful  moon- 
light night,  almost  too  clear  for  the  purpose, 
though  cloud  masses,  floating  here  and  there, 
gave  promise  of  the  needed  obscurity. 

It  was  so  clear  that  he  could  see  the  dark 
hulls  of  the  other  ships.  No  lights  showed 
but  the  guiding  light  of  the  vessel  immedi- 
ately ahead,  carefully  shaded  from  every 
direction  except  astern.  Such  lights  as  were 
absolutely  necessary  in  the  interior  of  the 
ships  were  veiled  from  the  outside.  The 
silence  throughout  the  squadron  was  broken 
only  by  the  throbbing  of  the  engines  and  the 
lapping  of  the  water.  It  might  have  been  a 
procession  of  nautical  phantoms. 

The    high    coast    of   Luzon    showed    in    a 
280 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    281 

shadowy  fashion  to  the  left.  The  entrance 
of  the  bay  was  only  a  few  miles  distant. 

The  powder  magazines  were  opened,  extra 
charges  for  the  guns  brought  up  on  deck, 
and  the  crew  called  to  quarters.  Then  the 
clouds  swept  over  the  face  of  the  moon,  and 
they  headed  for  the  bay. 

They  chose  the  wider  entrance,  as  less 
likely  to  be  thoroughly  protected  by  mines. 
This  was  a  time  far  more  trying  to  men's 
nerves  than  the  battle  of  the  next  morning. 
The  darkness,  the  silence,  the  inactivity,  while 
they  waited  for  a  submarine  explosion  that 
should  hurl  them  into  eternity,  were  far 
harder  to  bear  than  the  roar  and  tumult  and 
strenuous  exertion  of  the  fight. 

Beside  the  danger  of  mines,  there  were  the 

dangers  of  navigation.       They   had    no    pilot, 

\ 
of  course,  and  none  of  the  navigating  officers 

had  ever  been  in  the  bay  before.  Light- 
houses had  been  extinguished  at  the  decla- 
ration of  war,  leaving  them  dependent  on 
soundings  and  Spanish  charts  notoriously 
inaccurate.  If  any  of  the  vessels  struck  a 


282     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

rock  or  grounded  on  a  shoal,  the  dawning 
day  would  leave  them  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  forts. 

But  the  God  of  battles  was  with  them. 

To  the  left,  rose  the  frowning  heights  of 
Corregidor ;  to  the  right  was  the  gun-capped 
rock,  El  Fraile.  One  by  one  the  ships  passed 
the  danger  zone  undiscovered,  till  all  the 
fighters  were  inside  the  bay.  Then,  just  as 
the  tension  was  relaxing  and  every  one  begin- 
ning to  breathe  freely  again,  a  great  shower 
of  sparks  shot  up  from  the  smoke-stack  of  the 
McCulloch. 

There  was  a  moment  of  breathless  waiting. 
Would  a  rain  of  shot  pour  down  on  them  ? 
Would  mines  and  torpedoes  be  exploded  under 
them? 

A  rocket  went  up  from  Corregidor,  and  a 
shot  rang  out  from  El  Fraile.  It  was  an- 
swered by  one  or  two  of  the  last  vessels  of 
the  fleet,  and  then  silence  again  enveloped  them. 
The  transports  passed  through  unmolested,  — 
why,  no  one  knows,  —  and  the  squadron  was 
safe  for  the  moment  in  the  open  bay. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE    283 

The  men  who  were  not  on  watch  were 
allowed  to  lie  down  on  the  deck  and  sleep 
beside  their  guns.  A  sharp  lookout  was 
kept  for  torpedo  boats,  but  none  appeared. 

At  daybreak  they  swept  up  to  Manila,  with 
battle  flags  flying  from  every  masthead,  look- 
ing for  the  Spanish  fleet.  But  the  masts  and 
spars  that  had  lured  them  on  were  found  to 
belong  to  merchantmen,  and  they  turned,  fol- 
lowing the  shore,  till  the  hostile  squadron 
came  into  view  off  the  navy  yard  at  Cavite. 

In  the  histories  of  us  all,  even  the  most 
humdrum,  there  are  certain  supreme  moments 
when  life  is  concentrated  to  its  very  essence,  — 
mountain  peaks  of  experience  where  markers 
are  set  up  for  the  reckoning  of  dates  back- 
ward and  forward.  A  mere  five  minutes  at 
one  of  these  crucial  times  may  color  all  the 
rest  of  one's  life  for  weal  or  woe.  The  first 
of  May,  1898,  was  probably  the  loftiest  of 
these  peaks  in  the  lives  of  all  the  Americans 
at  Manila  that  day.  It  was  also  a  peak  of  no 
mean  height  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

In  an  advanced  stage    of  civilization,  it   is 


284     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

only  occasionally  that  the  great  primitive  fight- 
ing instinct  of  our  ancestors  gets  possession 
of  us.  When  it  does,  it  sweeps  us  off  our 
feet. 

The  men  of  the  American  squadron  that 
Sunday  morning  in  Manila  Bay  were  not 
philosophizing  about  the  making  of  history. 
The  mighty  present  wiped  out  past  and  fu- 
ture. They  were  uplifted  by  the  gray,  word- 
less Northern  ecstasy  of  battle.  The  bulldog 
in  them  closed  his  relentless  jaws  upon  the 
enemy.  It  was  "  Pound,  pound,  pound  !  — 
Don't  wait  to  be  pounded  !  —  At  them  again  ! 
Don't  give  them  time  to  hit  back."  The 
recollection  of  the  Maine's  destruction  aroused 
the  fury  of  fighting  in  them  ;  and  years  of  dis- 
cipline converted  this  abounding  force  of 
blind  rage  into  a  deliberate,  carefully  directed, 
far  deadlier  energy  of  attack. 

The  Spanish  shot  screamed  overhead  or 
splashed  in  the  water,  falling  short  of  the 
mark. 

Through  the  minds  of  officers  and  men, 
pulsed  hot,  half-articulate  thoughts. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    285 

"  Why  can't  those  fellows  hit  ?  Bad  marks- 
manship or  bad  powder  ?  Both,  probably. 
They'll  strike  pretty  soon,  though;  knock  us 
out,  maybe ;  but  in  the  meantime  we'll  give 
'em  hell!" 

Clouds  of  smoke  settled  down  and  shut  out 
the  contending  squadrons  from  each  other's 
sight,  but  there  was  always  the  flash  of  the 
guns  to  aim  at.  The  Spaniards'  fire  grew 
wilder  and  more  irregular.  But  they  showed 
no  other  sign  of  having  been  injured.  A  shell 
passed  through  the  rigging  of  the  Portland, 
cutting  it  in  several  places.  Another  embedded 
itself  in  the  sternpost,  but  failed  to  explode. 
A  third  passed  clear  through  the  steam-launch, 
shattering  it  completely,  but  doing  no  other 
damage. 

The  unformulated  thoughts  throbbed  on. 

"  What,  no  one  hurt  yet  ?  That's  good. 
But  we  mustn't  expect  it  to  last.  There'll 
be  blood  enough  flowing  presently,  no  doubt, 
but  we  shan't  stop  for  it,  —  not  even  if  it's 
our  own.*' 

Barefoot,    naked     to    the    waist,    blackened 


with  powder  through  which  the  coursing  sweat 
made  erratic  streaks,  the  men  at  the  guns 
looked  like  incarnate  demons  of  battle.  Here 
and  there  a  pair  of  shoes  and  a  gauze  under- 
shirt among  these  grimy  figures  marked  an 
officer.  Captain  Cartwright,  who  .was  always 
punctilious  about  dress,  added  a  once-white 
blouse  to  the  outfit,  and  tied  a  silk  handker- 
chief around  his  neck  in  place  of  a  collar. 

The  heat  was  awful.  At  Hong  Kong  it  had 
not  been  uncomfortably  warm,  and  on  the  trip 
over,  though  the  temperature  had  increased, 
they  had  had  steady  breezes  and  little  to  do. 
But  here  they  were,  suddenly  hurled  into  a 
land-locked  furnace,  working  like  madmen, 
with  the  tropical  sun  blazing  down  on  their 
unprotected  heads.  At  an  ordinary  time  there 
would  have  been  scores  of  heat  prostrations, 
but  the  excitement  of  the  battle  carried  them 
through  unscathed.  In  the  dynamo  room  the 
thermometer  stood  at  175°  Fahrenheit;  yet, 
though  the  men  had  to  come  up  from  time  to 
time  for  air,  the  dynamo  was  kept  running  and 
no  one  was  incapacitated  for  duty. 


THE  MEN  AT  THE   GUNS. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    287 

Throughout  the  action,  the  protected  con- 
ning tower  was  empty.  The  Captain  preferred 
to  stand  out  on  the  bridge.  His  eyes,  the  only 
centers  of  emotion  in  his  impassive  figure, 
were  blazing  with  the  light  of  battle.  All  his 
activities  of  mind  seemed  quickened.  He 
watched  the  signals  from  the  flag-ship,  the 
movements  of  the  squadron,  every  act  of  the 
enemy,  and  especially  the  fall  of  his  own  pro- 
jectiles. Nothing  escaped  him.  Now  and 
again  his  voice  rang  out,  praising  a  well-aimed 
shot  or  giving  a  bit  of  advice  as  to  the  sighting 
of  a  gun. 

When  they  had  thundered  away  for  a  couple 
of  hours,  passing  in  front  of  the  enemy's  fleet 
and  forts  five  times,  the  flag-ship  signalled  to 
withdraw  from  action. 

A  chill  fell  on  all  their  hearts.  What  did  it 
mean  ?  Were  the  other  ships  too  seriously 
crippled  to  go  on  ?  Had  they  used  up  all 
their  ammunition  ?  Was  the  Commodore  giv- 
ing up  the  fight  ?  Fists  clinched  and  the 
muscles  of  the  throat  tightened.  Eyes  grew 
suddenly  gloomy.  The  Captain  felt  it  like  the 


288     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

rest.  He  knew  no  more  than  they  what  the 
move  portended  ;  but  for  the  sake  of  the  others, 
he  assumed  a  cheerfulness  he  did  not  feel. 

"We'll  go  back  and  finish  them  up  after 
breakfast,"  he  sang  out  to  the  men  on  deck, 
and  they  responded  with  a  rousing  cheer. 

They  had  hardly  turned  away  from  Cavite 
when  tongues  of  flame  appeared  amid  the 
smoke  that  enveloped  the  Spanish  squadron, 
and  as  the  smoke  drifted  skyward,  the  flag-ship 
Reina  Cristina  was  seen  to  be  on  fire.  Loud 
cheering  rang  through  the  American  fleet  at 
this  sight,  and  was  renewed  when  another 
Spanish  vessel,  the  Castilla,  was  presently  seen 
to  be  burning  furiously. 

"  Let  the  people  go  to  breakfast,"  was  the 
first  signal  from  the  flag-ship. 

Was  this  really  what  they  had  withdrawn 
for  ?  Twenty  minutes  for  refreshments  in  the 
middle  of  a  battle  appealed  to  the  grim  Ameri- 
can sense  of  humor,  and  a  splutter  of  amuse- 
ment ran  through  the  ship's  company.  Here 
and  there  an  impatient  soul  grumbled  :  "  Oh, 
to  hell  with  breakfast !  Let's  finish  up  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    289 

dagoes  first."  But  they  had  had  nothing  ex- 
cept a  cup  of  coffee  since  five  o'clock  the  after- 
noon before,  and  they  had  been  working 
furiously.  As  soon  as  the  strain  was  relaxed, 
they  became  aware  of  an  exceeding  hunger, 
amounting  fairly  to  faintness. 

"  Commanding  officers  repair  aboard  flag- 
ship," was  the  next  signal. 

They  wondered  what  was  the  cause  of  the 
wild  cheering  aboard  the  Olympia,  and  watched 
eagerly  for  the  return  of  the  Captain's  gig.  As 
it  came  alongside,  the  officers  gathered  at  the 
gangway  and  the  men  crowded  to  the  bulwarks. 
Bursting  with  impatience,  they  scanned  the 
"  old  man's  "  face.  There  was  a  buoyant  look 
about  it  that  augured  well.  With  what  seemed 
to  them  maddening  deliberation,  he  climbed 
the  ladder,  uttered  the  routine  "  Returned 
aboard,  sir,"  and  responded  to  the  salute  of  his 
officers.  Then  his  face  broke  suddenly  into 
smiles  and  his  voice  trembled  as  he  said, — 

"  There's  not  a  man  hurt  in  the  whole 
fleet!" 

A  messenger  boy,  who  had  edged  up  near 


290     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

the  group  of  officers  in  the  hope  of  hearing 
something,  turned  and  ran  forward,  waving  his 
arms  like  a  windmill  and  shouting  at  the  top 
of  his  lungs  :  — 

"  Not  a  man  hurt  in  the  whole  fleet !  Not 
a  man  hurt  in  the  whole  fleet !  " 

A  great  cheer  went  up  from  the  deck.  Tears 
sprang  to  men's  eyes  and  thanksgivings  trem- 
bled in  their  hearts.  The  day  of  miracles  had 
returned,  and  they  were  chosen  of  the  Lord, 
held  safe  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand. 

The  Captain  told  the  men  the  news  himself 
with  a  little  more  detail  and  assured  them,  on 
the  word  of  the  Commodore,  that  they  were 
going  back  in  a  few  minutes  to  finish  the 
fight.  When  he  dismissed  them  they  danced 
about  like  schoolboys,  slapped  one  another 
on  the  back,  wrung  one  another's  hands, 
tossed  up  their  caps,  and  shouted  till  their 
throats  were  raw. 

The  celebration  stopped  abruptly,  as  a  signal 
fluttered  from  the  flag-ship's  halyards.  The 
mellow  notes  of  the  bugle  called  to  quarters, 
and  they  stood  away  again  for  the  enemy. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    291 

It  was  closer  in  this  time  and  harder  ham- 
mering than  ever,  short,  sharp,  and  decisive. 
The  Reina  Cristina  and  the  Castilla  sank  in 
flames.  The  powder  magazine  of  the  Don 
Juan  de  Austria  exploded,  and  ship  and  men 
disappeared  in  a  volcano  of  fire.  The  Don 
Antonio  de  Ulloa  went  down  heroically,  with 
flag  nailed  to  the  mast  and  impotent  guns  fir- 
ing to  the  end.  One  after  another,  the  re- 
maining gunboats  were  sunk  or  burned  and 
the  batteries  silenced.  At  last  the  red  and 
yellow  flag  of  Spain,  hanging  limp  above  the 
arsenal,  was  hauled  down,  and  the  battle  was 
over. 

The  Spanish  fleet  was  destroyed,  the  Pa- 
cific coast  was  made  secure,  the  Maine  was 
avenged,  and  an  empire  had  been  lost  and 
won. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

THE    hardest  battles  are   those  fought 
by  the   non-combatants.     They  have 
none  of  the  joy  of  action  and  all  the 
terror  of  suspense. 

Mrs.  Cartwright,  who  was  both  a  philoso- 
pher and  a  patriot,  far  from  going  out  to  meet 
trouble,  resolutely  turned  her  back  on  it  and, 
so  far  as  might  be,  refused  to  contemplate  it 
as  possible.  "  Time  enough  to  cross  our 
bridges  when  we  get  to  them,"  she  said  often 
and  thought  oftener.  And  so,  again,  there 
were  some  who  misread  her  determined  cheer- 
fulness and  called  it  indifference.  But  they 
only  saw  her  with  her  armor  on.  There  were 
times,  above  all  in  the  evening  after  Wriggles 
was  asleep,  when  phantoms  of  disaster  haunted 
her,  and  hideous  possibilities  with  personal 
applications  made  her  teeth  fairly  chatter  with 

fear. 

292 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    293 

When  the  rumors  began  circulating  in  Hong 
Kong,  she  absolutely  refused  to  take  anything 
seriously  in  advance  of  the  American  official 
reports.  Yet  in  spite  of  her  brave  words,  she 
could  not  but  be  disquieted  over  the  confident 
announcement  that  two  American  vessels  had 
been  blown  up  and  the  American  fleet  repulsed. 
Finally,  bit  by  bit,  the  unwilling  Spanish  tele- 
grams conceded  that  their  fleet  had  been  anni- 
hilated and  no  American  ships  lost. 

This  was  glorious  news,  but  did  not  assuage 
personal  anxieties.  There  were  references  to 
the  large  number  of  Spanish  killed  and 
wounded,  but  no  hint  as  to  the  extent  of 
American  casualties,  except  the  unpleasantly 
suggestive  phrase  that  the  fleet  withdrew  in 
the  middle  of  the  action  to  bury  its  dead. 
Then  cable  communication  was  broken  off, 
and  as  the  days  dragged  past  without  a  word, 
the  strain  of  suspense  grew  harder  and  harder 
to  bear.  The  tentative  rejoicing  of  a  woman 
over  a  great  victory  which  may  have  plunged 
her  into  deepest  mourning,  is  as  painful  a 
complexus  of  emotions  as  one  often  meets. 


294     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

There  was  quite  a  colony  of  officers'  wives 
in  Hong  Kong,  fifteen  or  more,  of  varying 
types,  —  excitable  young  things  still  wearing 
their  trousseaus,  pessimistic  matrons  who  con- 
sistently expected  the  worst,  and  nervous 
creatures  who  paced  the  floor  all  night 
wringing  their  hands.  Among  these  weaker 
sisters,  Mrs.  Cartwright  passed  to  and  fro 
dispensing  confidence,  joking  and  scolding 
a  great  deal,  sympathizing  a  very  little,  sug- 
gesting pleasant  possibilities,  and  laughing 
down  all  auguries  of  evil. 

At  last  the  blessed  day  came  that  brought 
the  McCulloch  into  the  harbor  with  news  of 
every  one's  safety,  and  letters  for  all  the  wives. 

The  colony  met  in  one  another's  rooms  and 
rejoiced  hysterically.  But  Mrs.  Cartwright 
stole  off  with  Wriggles  to  a  secluded  spot  she 
knew  of  under  a  big  banyan  tree  in  the  Public 
Gardens,  where  she  could  read  her  letters  over 
and  over  and  wipe  away  the  tears  of  thank- 
fulness that  brimmed  her  eyes,  without  any 
one's  seeing  her.  For  Wriggles  was  build- 
ing a  fort  and  did  not  notice. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    295 

When  she  went  back  after  a  couple  of 
hours,  she  had  herself  well  in  hand  and  was 
ready  to  compare  notes  and  rejoice  in  unison. 

"  Think  what  we're  missing  by  not  being 
at  home  to-day  ! "  she  exclaimed.  "  Just 
imagine  the  enthusiasm !  How  the  crowds 
are  thronging  in  front  of  the  newspaper  offices 
and  cheering  over  every  fresh  bulletin  !  The 
boys  are  shouting  extras,  and  the  flags  are 
waving,  and  the  people  are  going  wild.  And 
here,  —  what  does  anybody  care  but  us  ?  Our 
friends  will  congratulate  us  politely.  The 
others  are  mildly  interested  in  the  day's  news, 
—  but  it's  just  news.  They  don't  really 
care." 

"  I  don't  notice  you  going  home  though," 
somebody  suggested,  with  a  smile. 

"  Going  home  ?  With  my  husband  at 
Manila?  Not  quite.  We  must  get  along 
as  best  we  can  without  any  enthusiasm  except 
our  own.  But  it's  an  awful  loss.  I  shan't 
ever  quite  get  over  it." 

A  few  days  later,  Mrs.  Cartwright  moved 
up  to  the  Peak  to  get  Wriggles  out  of  the 


296     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

steaming  heat  of  the  lower  levels.  He  had 
lost  his  beautiful  rosy  color  and  was  white 
like  the  rest  of  the  children,  but  otherwise  he 
was  perfectly  well.  To  be  sure,  his  grand- 
mother hovered  over  him  night  and  day,  and 
never  relaxed  her  vigilance. 

The  months  that  followed  were  trying 
months.  If  was  impossible  to  count  on  any- 
thing. There  was  the  constant  expectation 
that  the  fleet  would  leave  Manila  and  sail 
for  home.  No  one  dreamed  at  first  that  the 
city  would  be  occupied  by  our  forces.  When 
it  was  announced  that  troops  would  be  sent 
out  for  that  purpose,  it  was  supposed  that 
as  soon  as  they  arrived,  there  would  be  no 
further  need  for  most  of  the  ships.  But 
about  that  time  the  Camara  scare  was  started, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  keep  the  fleet  to- 
gether to  fight  another  Spanish  squadron. 
And  there  was  the  German  complication,  and 
the  delay  in  taking  Manila. 

The  lack  of  full  and  comprehensible  war 
news  from  America  was  a  source  of  much 
distress  to  Mrs.  Cartwright,  who  roundly 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    297 

abused  the  want  of  enterprise  shown  by 
the  colonial  press  and  the  meagerness  and 
unreliability  of  the  telegrams.  They  had  a 
way  of  announcing  that  such  and  such  an 
American  ship  had  been  captured  by  the 
Spaniards,  or  that  the  American  attack  on 
such  and  such  a  Cuban  town  had  been  re- 
pulsed with  heavy  loss  ;  and  as  contradictions 
were  not  considered  interesting  enough  to 
cable,  there  would  be  no  means  of  knowing 
it  was  a  mere  canard  till  the  newspapers 
came  by  mail  a  month  later.  Their  sense 
of  proportion  was,  moreover,  according  to 
Mrs.  Cartwright,  singularly  deficient. 

"  They  devote  more  space  to  the  Duke 
of  York's  having  a  cold  in  his  head,"  she 
exclaimed,  indignantly,  "  than  to  the  battle 
of  Santiago  ! " 

When  one  is  at  the  antipodes,  letters  from 
home  assume  a  value  altogether  artificial,  and 
Mrs.  Cartwright  watched  the  arrival  of  the 
mail  steamers  from  San  Francisco  with  only 
less  eagerness  than  that  of  the  despatch  boats 
from  Manila.  Two  letters  which  she  received 


298     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

about  this  time  interested  her  very  greatly, 
though  they  filled  her  with  widely  different 
feelings.  They  were  from  Barbara  and  Sue, 
both  warmly  congratulating  her  on  her  hus- 
band's safety,  on  the  thanks  of  Congress  he 
had  received  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
fleet,  and  on  the  indefinite  honors  that  were 
doubtless  in  store  for  him.  But  here  their 
similarity  ended.  Barbara,  while  she  refrained 
from  saying  all  she  felt  about  the  iniquity  of 
the  war,  out  of  deference  to  Mrs.  Cartwright's 
well-known  sentiments,  could  not  altogether 
conceal  her  distress  over  the  course  being 
pursued  by  "  our  unhappy  country." 

"  More  and  more,"  she  wrote,  "  do  I  find 
myself  out  of  tune  with  a  society  so  given  over 
to  the  pride  of  conquest  and  the  lust  of  re- 
venge. It  always  seemed  frivolous  and  foolish 
and  tiresome  enough,  but  now  it  is  positively 
hateful.  Should  you  be  very  much  surprised 
if  I  withdrew  from  it  altogether,  and  if  you 
found  me,  on  your  return,  in  the  white  robe 
of  a  novice  ?  Stranger  things  have  hap- 
pened." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    299 

"  Stranger  fiddlesticks  !  "  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Cartwright,  irreverently.  "  Stuff  and  nonsense  ! 
White  robe  of  a  novice,  indeed  !  If  she  wants 
to  sacrifice  herself,  why  doesn't  she  brace  up 
and  do  something  useful  that  will  help  other 
people  ?  Why  can't  she  nurse  sick  soldiers, 
like  Sue  ?  I've  no  patience  with  such  a  notion. 
I  hope  it's  all  talk,  but  Barbara's  such  an  odd 
girl  —  in  spots  —  that  I  can't  feel  sure." 

Sue  was,  indeed,  nursing  sick  soldiers  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  her  enthusiastic  nature; 
but  she  was  not  doing  it  on  enthusiasm  alone. 
Among  the  various  forms  of  activity  to 
which  she  had  turned  her  hand,  she  had  once, 
soon  after  leaving  college,  taken  a  course  in 
nursing,  and  her  training-school  diploma  en- 
abled her  to  be  enrolled  in  the  newly  organized 
corps  of  army  nurses.  The  doctor  and  head 
nurses  had  looked  a  little  askance  at  her,  fear- 
ing the  dilettante,  but  Sue  soon  established 
her  right  to  be  regarded  as  a  serious  worker. 
The  old  knack  and  knowledge  of  the  hospital, 
rusty  from  disuse,  speedily  came  back  to  her, 
and  she  had  many  qualifications  which  admi- 


3oo     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

rably  fitted  her  for  her  new  vocation.  Not 
least  among  these  was  the  discipline  that  comes 
from  mental  training.  In  spite  of  the  popular 
impression  to  the  contrary,  a  college  education, 
properly  received,  does  help  a  man  to  dig 
ditches  and  a  woman  to  make  beds  better  than 
they  would  have  done  without  it.  She  had,  to 
a  remarkable  degree,  the  adaptability  to  new 
conditions  which  is  supposed  to  be  character- 
istic of  all  Americans.  She  had  a  magnificent 
physique,  thanks  to  which  she  was  able  to  en- 
dure continuous  and  very  wearing  labor  with- 
out feeling  any  ill  effects.  Her  charm  of  person 
and  manner  gave  her  unlimited  power  over 
refractory  patients,  while  her  perfect  dignity 
effectually  checked  the  sentimentalities  of  con- 
valescents. - 

Amid  her  manifold  duties  at  a  typhoid  fever 
camp,  she  did  not  have  much  time  for  writing 
letters,  she  said,  but  she  had  to  express  her 
congratulations  to  Mrs.  Cartwright  about  the 
dear  Captain  and  tell  her  in  just  a  few  words 
what  she  was  doing.  And  then,  at  the  last, 
came  a  single,  significant,  apparently  unrelated 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    301 

little  phrase,  —  "I    wish    you  would    tell    me 
your  honest  opinion  of  second  marriages." 

"  Bless  her  heart,"  reflected  Mrs.  Cartwrightj 
"  what  shall  I  say  to  the  child  ?  Of  course  my 
words  of  wisdom  won't  really  make  any  differ- 
ence. But  I've  got  to  say  something.  What's 
the  good  of  a  general  opinion  about  a  question 
like  that  ?  It  doesn't  amount  to  anything. 
Now  to  be  personal,  —  if  I  were  to  die  and 
Julius  made  an  old  fool  of  himself  and  married 
some  young  girl,  I'd  haunt  him.  Wouldn't  I 
though  !  And  if  Jim  Whittemore,  after  having 
had  the  privilege  of  being  Elizabeth's  husband, 
were  to  take  it  into  his  head  to  marry  some- 
body else,  I'd  hate  him  most  cordially  to  my 
dying  day.  But  I  don't  want  to  say  that  to 
Sue.  .  .  .  On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  a 
little  bald  to  tell  her  that  there  are  few  things 
in  this  world  which  would  so  delight  me  as  for 
her  to  marry  John  Me  Masters,  —  and  yet  it 
has  the  double  advantage  of  being  the  truth 
and  exactly  what  she  wants  to  hear  !  " 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

AFTER  the  peace  protocol  was  signed, 
the  Duluth  came  north.     And  as  the 
Chickamauga  typhoid  epidemic  was  a 
thing  of  the   past  and    Sue   had   been   trans- 
ferred to  Camp  Wyckoff  at  Montauk  Point, 
Mr.  McMasters  was  able  to   see  her  almost 
immediately. 

"  You  must  give  this  up,"  he  said  sternly. 
"It's  killing  you." 

In  fact,  she  was  beginning  to  look  pale 
and  fagged. 

"  No,  it  isn't,"  she  replied  cheerfully. 
"  And  what  if  it  were  ?  It's  my  work.  I 
didn't  try  to  keep  you  away  from  Spanish 
bullets  when  your  duty  called  you  to  face 
them,  did  I  ? " 

It  was  significant  that  they  should  assume 
so  much  responsibility  for  each  other.  Their 

302 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    303 

correspondence  had  evidently  been  of  a  pro- 
gressive nature. 

"  But  the  war  is  over  now,"  he  pleaded. 

"  Its  consequences  are  not  over,"  she  re- 
plied, with  a  comprehensive  gesture  toward 
the  tents  where  the  sick  and  wounded  lay. 

"You  have  done  more  than  your  share 
already.  It  is  time  to  think  of  yourself." 

"  Look  here,  John  McMasters,"  she  said, 
with  intense  earnestness,  "  I  don't  believe  in 
a  double  standard  of  morality  for  men  and 
women,  and  neither  do  I  believe  in  a  double 
standard  of  honor  for  them.  I  undertook  to 
serve  the  commonweal  just  as  seriously  as 
you  did,  and  I  propose  to  keep  on  doing  it 
till  I  am  mustered  out." 

"  By  George  !  "  he  said,  "  you  ought  to  be 
a  naval  officer !  You've  the  spirit  of  the 
service  to  perfection." 

They  both  smiled  at  the  frank  conceit  — 
caste  conceit,  if  not  personal  —  of  the  remark. 

"  Unfortunately,  I  can't  be,"  she  replied, 
with  an  odd  little  smile.  (( I  would  if  I 
could." 


3o4     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"You  might  be  a  naval  officer's  wife,"  he 
suggested  in  a  very  low  voice,  his  eyes  fixed 
on  the  hole  he  was  poking  in  the  ground 
with  his  cane. 

She  rose  from  the  empty  vinegar  keg  on 
which  she  had  been  sitting. 

"  I  might  be,"  she  said  gently,  "  if —  " 

"If  what?"  he  demanded,  looking  up  at 
her  quickly. 

"If  the  ideal  man  I  have  been  waiting  for 
should  ask  me." 

"  Oh ! "  he  breathed,  with  a  little  choke. 
His  eyes  were  like  a  hurt  child's. 

He  had  misunderstood  her,  but  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  she  could  hardly  explain  his 
mistake  to  him. 

"  I  go  on  duty  now,"  she  said.  "  I've 
got  to  leave  you.  When  can  you  come 
again  ?  " 

"  This  is  a  mighty  sudden  way  to  shake  a 
fellow,"  he  remarked,  summoning  a  smile  with 
an  effort.  "  I'll  be  back  to-morrow,  with 
your  permission,  if  you'll  be  good  enough  to 
tell  me  of  a  more  propitious  hour." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    305 

"  Can't  you  take  off  those  emblems  of 
your  high  calling  and  come  for  a  walk  with 
me  —  out  of  sight  of  all  this?"  he  asked 
her  next  day  on  arriving. 

She  raised  both  hands  to  the  little  muslin 
cap  on  her  head,  then  held  out  her  white 
apron  daintily  between  thumb  and  finger. 

"  Do  they  worry  you,  —  these  things  ?  "  she 
laughed  at  him.  "  I  thought  them  rather 
becoming,"  she  added  demurely. 

"  They  are,"  he  agreed,  "  like  everything 
you  wear.  But  they're  not  appropriate.  You 
ought  to  be  robed  always  in  a  stiff  brocade 
with  a  court  train." 

She  made  him  a  curtsy,  then  became  sud- 
denly businesslike. 

"  I've  only  got  two  hours  off  duty,  and 
fifteen  minutes  are  gone  already.  Don't  you 
think  it  would  be  rather  a  waste  to  spend  any 
of  the  remaining  hour  and  three  quarters  in 
shifting  costumes  back  and  forth  ?  I'll  do  it  if 
you  say  so,"  she  added  with  absurd  meekness, 
looking  at  him  from  the  corners  of  her  eyes. 

"  No  indeed,"  he  cried  with  vehemence.     "  I 


306     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

didn't  think  of  that.  The  minutes  are  far  too 
precious.  Come  down  on  the  beach.  Around 
that  point,  perhaps,  we  can  get  out  of  sight  of 
all  these  hospital  appliances.  You  must  want 
to  get  away  from  them  sometimes  ?  " 

"  Do  you  find  them  depressing  ? "  she  asked 
him  serenely.  "  You'd  soon  get  over  that. 
But  we'll  go  down  on  the  beach  by  all  means." 

They  walked  together  along  the  firm  damp 
sand  toward  the  lighthouse,  till  they  had  left 
the  last  of  the  tents  behind  them  and  were  alone 
with  the  curling  waves,  the  winged  clouds,  and 
the  great  sand  dunes  tufted  with  coarse  grass. 

"  Who  would  have  thought  that  night  at  the 
Cartwrights's  dinner,  when  I  met  you  two  girls 
in  pretty  evening  gowns,  that  I'd  ever  see  one 
of  you  dressed  as  an  army  nurse  and  the  other 
as  a  nun  !  " 

"  Oh,"  she  cried,  ignoring  her  own  share  of 
the  remark,  "  poor  Barbara  !  Isn't  it  dreadful  ? 
But  she  likes  it.  She  revels  in  it.  Of  course 
she  hasn't  taken  the  vows  yet.  She  can  give  it 
up  if  she  wants  to.  But  she  won't,  she  won't, 
—  unless  you  can  induce  her  to  ?  " 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    307 

"  //  "  he  exclaimed,  in  obvious  astonishment. 
"  What  in  the  world  should  she  care  for  my 
views  ?  Besides,  I'm  inclined  to  think  it's  just 
the  life  she's  suited  for.  A  coif  and  bandeau 
will  harmonize  perfectly  with  that  seraphic  face 
of  hers." 

"  You  take  it  very  coolly,"  said  Sue.  "  Are 
you  all  over  it  then  ?  " 

"Over  what?" 

His  evident  bewilderment  bewildered  her  in 
turn.  She  had  recourse  to  utter  frankness. 

"  Surely  you  used  to  be  in  love  with  Bar- 
bara ?  " 

"//  Good  Lord,  what  put  such  an  idea  as 
that  into  your  head  ?  You're  thinking  of 
Ferris." 

"  I'm  hardly  likely  to  confuse  the  two.  But 
I  was  so  sure  —  " 

"  You  were  sure  of  a  very  big  mistake  then." 

A  wave  of  color  had  swept  over  her  face,  and 
to  save  her  from  embarrassment,  he  hastily 
changed  the  subject. 

"  Did  you  see  that  picture  of  Ferris  in  the 
paper  the  other  day  labelled  '  Hero  Ferris '  P 


3o8     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

I've  seen  Poet  Jones  and  Artist  Smith,  but  I 
believe  Hero  Ferris  is  a  shade  worse.  We 
have  no  patents  of  nobility,  but  our  fearful  and 
wonderful  press  does  its  best  to  make  up  for 
the  lack." 

"Who  would  ever  have  thought,"  she 
mused,  "  that  he  would  be  the  one  to  perform 
—  barring  the  Merrimac  episode  —  almost  the 
only  spectacular  act  of  heroism  of  the  whole 
war?" 

"  Why  not  ?  He's  earnest  and  fearless. 
Drawing-room  cleverness  isn't  necessary  to 
heroism." 

"  As  if  I  cared  for  drawing-room  cleverness  ! 
But  I  remember  Captain  Cartwright's  saying 
once  that  he  had  the  making  of  a  Casabianca, 
and  I  suppose  a  certain  amount  of  stupidity  is 
necessary  to  produce  that  type." 

"  Don't  belittle  Ferris's  achievement.  He 
handled  his  torpedo-boat  magnificently." 

"  Oh,  I  know.  It  was  tremendously  fine. 
I  wrote  and  told  him  so,  though  he  must  be 
too  much  snowed  under  by  celebrity  to  care 
about  a  note  more  or  less." 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    309 

"  I  wonder  if  Miss  Thornhill  wrote  ?  " 

«  Oh  no.     She'd  be  afraid  to." 

"  For  fear  of  encouraging  him  ?  You  think 
his  becoming  so  distinguished  hasn't  softened 
her  heart  any  ?  " 

"  How  could  .it,  if  she  didn't  love  him  ?  " 

"  You  are  sure  she  didn't  ?  " 

"  Oh,  very  sure." 

"  But  sometimes  you  make  mistakes  about 
the  state  of  people's  affections." 

"  So  it  appears.  But  there's  no  doubt  about 
that" 

"Your  old  friend  Mr.  Fairchild  is  recom- 
mended for  five  numbers'  advance  for  cable- 
cutting,  I  see." 

"  He's  no  friend  of  mine." 

"  Not  since  he  failed  in  friendliness  to  the 
Mothers'  Club  ?  You  are  very  unforgiving." 

"  I  could  forgive  much  larger  things  more 
easily.  That  happened  to  be  a  sort  of  touch- 
stone. .  .  .  But  tell  me,  how  does  it  feel  to 
be  a  returning  hero  ?  " 

His  face  fell. 

"  Don't  laugh  at  my  misfortune,"   he  said. 


310     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

u  It  isn't  kind.  It's  not  a  thing  to  say  much 
about,  but  don't  you  suppose  I  feel  the  dis- 
appointment keenly  enough  ? " 

"  What  are  you  talking  about  ?  " 

"  That  the  war  should  have  come  and  gone, 
—  perhaps  the  only  one  I  shall  ever  have  a 
chance  at,  —  with  all  its  golden  opportunities, 
and  all  of  them  should  have  passed  me  by." 

"  How  passed  you  by  ?  " 

"  My  application  to  go  in  with  the  Merri- 
mac  was  turned  down.  I  had  no  chance  to 
destroy  an  enemy's  ship  with  a  torpedo-boat, 
like  Ferris.  I  wasn't  at  Manila  Bay  or  at 
Santiago.  I  didn't  even  have  the  luck  to  be 
sent  out  in  a  launch  to  cut  cables." 

"  But  those  things  were  not  your  fault." 

"  Possibly  not." 

"  You  went  where  you  were  sent." 

"Of  course." 

"  And  did  your  whole  duty." 

"  I  hope  so." 

"  It  was  only  by  an  unlucky  chance  that 
your  ship  was  away  chasing  a  blockade-runner 
the  day  of  the  Santiago  fight." 


"  There  is  pardon  sometimes  for  the  wicked, 
but  never  for  the  unlucky." 

Sue  was  watching  him  with  troubled,  kindly 
eyes. 

"  I  don't  understand  you,"  she  said.  "  You 
are  showing  me  a  new  side  of  yourself  to-day. 
I  didn't  know  you  cared  a  rap  for  fame." 

"  I  don't  for  myself,"  he  replied.  "  But 
I  wanted  it  to  lay  at  your  feet." 

She  started.  When  she  spoke  her  voice 
was  low  and  full  of  feeling. 

"  Don't  you  know  that  I  am  far  prouder 
of  what  you  are  than  of  what  anybody  else 
has  done  ?  " 

They  had  sat  down  on  the  slope  of  a  big 
sand-hill  which  blotted  out  the  view  of  the 
camp.  Sue's  hands  lay  idly  in  her  lap ;  but 
McMasters,  more  restless  apparently,  leaned 
on  one  elbow  and  scooped  out  holes  in  the 
dry  sand,  which  slid  down  from  the  edges  and 
filled  them  up  as  fast  as  he  hollowed  them 
out.  He  stopped  now  and  looked  at  her 
steadfastly. 

"Are  you  just  being  kind,  or  — " 


312     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

"  Or  what  ?  "  she  prompted. 

"  I  can't  bear  to  spoil  our  friendship  ! "  he 
burst  out. 

She  looked  bewildered  again. 

"  Is  there  any  earthly  reason  why  you 
should  ? "  she  asked. 

"  I'm  afraid,  abjectly  afraid,"  he  con- 
fessed. 

"  I  don't  see  anything  to  be  afraid  of,"  she 
said  evenly. 

"  Help  me,  then." 

The  veil  had  fallen.  His  heart  was  in  his 
eyes. 

"  What  is  it  you  wish  me  to  say  ? " 

Her  voice  was  hardly  above  a  whisper. 

"  That  you've  changed  your  mind." 

"  About  what  ?  " 

"What  you  said  that  night  —  about  second- 
hand men." 

For  an  instant  she  looked  dazed.  Then,  as 
the  flood  of  memory  swept  over  her,  she  gave 
a  low  cry,  like  that  of  a  mother  who  finds  a 
child  in  unsuspected  pain. 

"  You  poor,  poor  boy  !  "    Her  voice  thrilled 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    313 

tenderly.  She  laid  her  hand  on  his  shoulder, 
and  the  tears  swam  in  her  eyes. 

He  possessed  himself  of  the  hand  and  laid  it 
against  his  cheek. 

"Who  repeated  that  hideous  phrase  to  you  ?  " 
she  cried,  with  dawning  indignation. 

"  I  heard  it  from  your  own  dear  lips,"  he 
said.  "  I  had  left  my  overcoat  behind  —  " 

"Yes,  I  remember." 

"  I  turned  around  to  come  back  for  it,  glad 
of  an  excuse  to  leave  the  others,  glad  of  an 
excuse  to  get  back  to  the  blessed  house  that 
held  you,  hoping  for  the  chance  of  another 
word  with  you, —  Oh,  you  can't  guess  how 
full  of  you  I  was  !  There  was  never  any  one 
like  you  in  the  world.  You  carried  me  off  my 
feet.  You  were  so  beautiful,  so  brilliant,  and 
so  sweetly  unconscious  of  it  all,  —  so  alive  to 
the  finger  tips,  so  full  of  enthusiasm.  I  had 
not  stopped  to  think  of  myself,  —  whether  I 
was  worthy  or  not,  whether  there  was  the 
slightest  hope  for  me  or  not.  The  universe 
was  simply  full  of  you.  And  as  I  came  around 
under  the  drawing-room  windows,  —  they  were 


3H     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

all  wide  open,  the  light  was  streaming  out, — 
I  could  distinguish  your  voice  among  the 
others.  I  was  walking  slowly  to  finish  my 
cigarette  before  I  got  to  the  door.  I  didn't 
intend  to  listen,  but  I  couldn't  help  hearing 
what  you  said." 

As  he  spoke,  her  face  was  tense  with  the  pain 
of  sympathy.  She  drew  her  hand  away  from 
him  and  pressed  it  with  the  other  over  her  eyes 
for  a  moment,  as  though  to  shut  out  some  too 
painful  vision. 

"  Oh,  how  cruel  it  must  have  sounded ! " 
she  murmured. 

"  It  was  not  cruel,"  he  said  gently.  "It 
was  true.  You  were  perfectly  right  about  it. 
But  it  tumbled  me  head  over  heels  out  of 
my  fool's  paradise.  I  could  no  more  help 
loving  you  than  I  could  help  breathing,  but 
I  knew  you  were  not  for  me,  and  that  my 
only  chance  to  be  with  you,  to  see  you,  and 
hear  you,  was  to  keep  myself  well  in  hand." 

"  You  were  very  successful,"  she  said. 

"  Miss  Barbara  used  to  let  me  talk  about 
you  to  her  by  the  hour.  It  was  very  nice 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    315 

of  heV.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  that,  I'm  afraid 
I  should  have  given  myself  away." 

She  made  no  reply.  His  power  of  articu- 
late speech  had  outlasted  hers.  But  he  was 
at  an  end,  too.  His  marvellous  self-control 
was  deserting  him. 

For  a  long  moment  they  looked  into  each 
other's  eyes  —  looked,  and  read  the  glowing 
message,  —  looked,  while  their  hearts  stood 
still  with  rapturous  fear,  —  looked,  till  the 
heavens  reeled  and  time  and  space  melted 
away. 

"  Beloved ! "  he  whispered,  as  his  arms 
closed  around  her. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

THE  Portland  was  the  first  of  the  vessels 
taking  part  in  the  battle  of  Manila 
Bay  to  be  ordered  home.     The   en- 
thusiasm kindled  by  the  war  was  still  blazing, 
and  every  nerve  was  strained  to  make  the  wel- 
come of  the  ship  a  fitting  expression  of  it. 

When  she  was  reported  off  Sandy  Hook, 
with  her  four-hundred-foot  homeward-bound 
pennant  floating  from  the  main  truck,  every 
yacht,  tugboat,  and  excursion  steamer  in  New 
York  harbor  hastened  to  meet  her  and  escort 
her  to  the  anchorage  in  North  River.  Reck- 
less sightseers  in  rowboats  and  sailboats 
courted  death  under  the  white  bow  of  the 
cruiser.  The  people  on  the  excursion  boats 
crowded  to  the  rail  till  the  decks  were  steeply 
aslant  and  only  a  miracle  prevented  their  cap- 
sizing. Flags  and  handkerchiefs  fluttered,  hats 

316 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    317 

waved,  thousands  of  throats  cheered  them- 
selves hoarse,  steam  whistles  shrieked  deafen- 
ingly,  and  brass  bands  tried  vainly  to  make 
themselves  heard  above  the  din.  The  cap- 
tains of  the  excursion  boats  ran  as  close  as 
they  dared  to  the  sides  of  the  man-of-war. 

"  That's  him  !  That's  him  !  "  cried  a  chorus 
of  jubilant  sightseers,  as  they  made  out  an 
officer  on  the  bridge  whose  features  were 
already  familiar  to  them  in  newspaper  cuts 
and  magazine  illustrations.  "  Welcome  home, 
Captain  Cartwright ! " 

"  Why,  thank  you,"  said  the  officer,  simply, 
doffing  his  cap,  obviously  surprised  at  the 
personalness  of  the  greeting. 

The  great  American  populace  were  not  con- 
tent with  this.  Whom  they  love,  they  slap 
on  the  back.  Being  prevented  by  the  stretch 
of  water  between  them  from  expressing  their 
admiration  of  Captain  Cartwright  in  this  man- 
ner, they  conveyed  the  spirit  of  the  act,  at 
least,  by  addressing  him  as  "Julius,"  calling 
him  a  "  bully  boy,"  informing  him  that  he 
was  the  "  real  stuff,"  and  could  "  have  them 


318     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

all,"  and  assuring  him  that  they  "  wouldn't  do 
a  thing  to  him "  when  they  got  him  ashore. 
An  inspired  punster  called  out  that  he  was 
"  All-right  as  well  as  Cartwright,"  and  the  bon- 
mot  was  repeated  and  the  changes  rung  on  it 
till  the  flesh  crept. 

Familiarity  of  this  sort  was  altogether  new 
in  Captain  Cartwright's  experience,  and  he  was 
far  from  relishing  it.  He  would  have  taken 
refuge  in  his  cabin,  had  his  presence  not  been 
absolutely  required  on  the  bridge  for  the  bring- 
ing of  his  ship  into  port.  His  whole  soul 
writhed  under  the  vulgarity  of  it,  till  at  last 
in  utter  disgust  he  exclaimed :  — 

"  The  good  Lord,  in  His  infinite  mercy, 
may  be  able  to  forgive  the  Admiral  for  lead- 
ing us  into  Manila  Bay,  —  but  /  never  can  !  " 

The  reporters  got  hold  of  the  phrase  and 
served  it  up  with  embellishments  in  the  even- 
ing papers.  Instead  of  hurting  anybody's 
feelings,  it  seemed  somehow  to  tickle  the 
popular  sense  of  humor.  From  having  been 
merely  an  ex  officio  hero,  —  what  the  news- 
papers delighted  to  describe  as  "  one  of  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    319 

fighting  captains  of  Manila  Bay,"  —  Captain 
Cartwright  suddenly  found  himself  the  per- 
sonal idol  of  seventy  millions  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen. 

His  speech  at  the  banquet  that  night  added 
to  his  popularity.  The  American  public  is 
convinced  that  naval  and  military  heroes 
should  be  inarticulate,  —  not  stupidly  so,  of 
course,  but  intelligently,  and,  as  one  may  say, 
sympathetically  inarticulate.  So,  when  Captain 
Cartwright  rose  in  response  to  the  toast  of 
the  evening,  and  having  said  in  a  well  modu- 
lated voice,  "  It  is  good  to  be  back  in  God's 
country,  and  we  thank  you  from  our  hearts 
for  the  warmth  of  the  welcome  you  have  given 
us,"  sat  down  again,  the  Citizens'  Committee 
of  One  Hundred  and  their  numerous  guests 
went  wild  over  him,  and  the  morning  papers 
grew  eloquent  in  praise  of  his  modesty  and 
simple  manliness. 

The  day  following  the  arrival  of  the  Port- 
land was  devoted  to  a  great  procession.  The 
streets  through  which  it  passed  were  gayly 
decked  with  bunting.  Every  window  along 


320     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

the  route  seemed  alive  with  faces.  Tempo- 
rary stands,  with  seats  on  bare  boards  selling 
at  five  dollars  apiece,  were  full  of  enthusias- 
tic sightseers  effervescing  with  patriotism. 
Every  inch  of  standing  room  on  the  sidewalk 
was  packed,  and  the  long  line  of  police  on 
either  side  of  the  street  with  difficulty  held 
back  the  swaying  masses. 

There  were  cheers  for  the  visiting  govern- 
ors and  dapper  state  troops,  cheers  for  the 
Civil  War  veterans,  wild  applause  for  the 
soldiers  back  from  Cuba,  with  their  rough 
field  equipment,  torn  battle  flags,  and  piti- 
fully thinned  ranks ;  but  the  frenzy  of  en- 
thusiasm was  saved  for  the  detachment  of 
brown-legginged  blue-jackets  in  whose  honor 
the  celebration  was  held,  and  the  very  essence 
of  its  fury  was  concentrated  on  the  quiet, 
middle-aged  gentleman  in  full-dress  naval 
uniform  with  cocked  hat  and  epaulets,  who 
rode  in  an  open  carriage  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  mayor. 

The  ways  of  returning  heroes  are  various. 
Some  are  visibly  elated  to  the  point  of  hilarity. 


THE  SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    321 

Some  are  touched  to  tears.  Some,  trying  to 
play  the  part  appropriately,  achieve  wooden- 
ness  instead  of  dignity.  One  would  have 
said,  had  such  a  thing  been  possible,  that  this 
particular  hero  was  utterly  unconscious  of 
occupying  the  center  of  the  stage,  and  that  the 
sentiment  with  which  he  regarded  the  whole 
spectacle  was  a  mild  and  genial  amusement. 

They  passed  a  living  flag  composed  of 
school  children  dressed  in  red,  white,  and 
blue,  singing  the  "  Star-spangled  Banner." 

"  Charming ! "  said  the  hero  of  the  occa- 
sion, as  he  sat,  hat  in  hand,  to  pass  them. 

But,  to  the  disappointment  of  the  mayor 
and  the  newspaper  men,  he  wiped  no  tear 
from  the  corner  of  his  eye.  There  was  ob- 
viously none  to  wipe. 

Then  they  came  to  a  band  of  white-gowned 
young  girls  scattering  flowers. 

The  hero  picked  up  a  rose  that  fell  on  his 
sleeve  and  fastened  it  in  his  buttonhole. 

"  This  is  quite  overwhelming,"  he  said  to 
the  mayor,  but  his  voice  did  not  tremble  in 
the  least. 


322     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

Next,  passing  an  open  square,  they  came 
upon  a  chorus,  five  hundred  strong,  who 
greeted  them  with  "  Hail  to  the  Chief." 

"  This  appears  to  be  a  conspiracy  to  turn 
my  head,"  said  the  hero,  but  his  unemotional 
manner  showed  how  little  the  conspiracy  had 
succeeded. 

Once  only  did  he  betray  something  warmer 
than  polite  and  decorous  appreciation  of  the 
efforts  of  others.  As  they  approached  the 
flag-decked  front  of  an  up-town  hotel,  he 
spoke  a  few  words  to  the  mayor  and  began 
to  scan  the  windows  and  balconies  with  some- 
thing like  eagerness. 

"  Oh,  there  he  is  !  There's  Gran'fadder ! " 
cried  a  high,  childish  voice. 

At  the  same  instant  the  Captain  saw  them 
and  waved  his  hat.  His  wife's  handkerchief 
fluttered  enthusiastically  in  response,  and  the 
child's  hand,  unsteady  with  excitement,  hurled 
a  bunch  of  violets  toward  the  carriage,  which 
fell  far  short  of  the  mark. 

"  Oh,  he  didn't  get  them !  "  cried  the  boy. 

"Never  mind,  sonny,  he  shall,"  said  a  good- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE    323 

natured  voice  from  the  crowd;  and  the  little 
bunch  of  flowers  was  passed  along,  high  over 
men's  heads,  till  it  reached  its  destination. 

Hardly  a  score  of  people  caught  enough  of 
the  incident  to  guess  that  the  excited  little 
sailor  boy  who  threw  the  flowers  was  the 
"  hero's  "  grandson,  and  the  gray-haired  lady 
who  held  the  child  on  the  rail  of  the  balcony 
was  his  wife.  The  newspapers  did  not  get 
hold  of  it  at  all.  Yet,  had  they  but  known 
it,  the  five  minutes  during  which  he  was  in 
sight  of  that  particular  balcony  were  the  only 
ones  of  the  day  when  his  heart  beat  faster  than 
its  wont. 

That  evening,  after  having  shown  them- 
selves for  a  short  time  at  the  banquet  ten- 
dered by  the  city  to  the  enlisted  men  of  the 
Portland,  Captain  and  Mrs.  Cartwright  re- 
tired to  their  rooms  at  the  hotel,  leaving 
word  at  the  office  that  the  Captain  was  resting 
and  on  no  account  to  be  disturbed.  The  ex- 
perience of  the  last  thirty-six  hours  had  taught 
them  the  inadequacy  of  such  precautions,  and 
they  hastened  to  turn  out  the  gas  in  their  sit- 


324     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

ting-room,  for  the  discouragement  of  any  enter- 
prising reporter  who  might  be  lurking  about 
their  door  in  search  of  copy,  as  well  as  for  the 
better  enjoyment  of  the  firelight. 

They  drew  their  arm-chairs  up  in  front  of 
the  grate,  a  glowing  center  from  which  ven- 
turesome rays  strayed  out  capriciously  into 
the  shadowy  room.  The  Captain  lighted  his 
cigar  and  leaned  back,  luxuriously  watching 
the  play  of  the  yellow  flames  above  the  red 
lumps  of  coal. 

"  This  is  the  first  peaceful  moment  I've 
had  since  we  got  into  port,"  he  remarked. 

Several  minutes  elapsed  before  he  spoke 
again. 

"You  observe  that  row  of  silver  gimcracks 
on  the  table  that  were  presented  to  me  at 
City  Hall  this  morning  by  the  various  mu- 
nicipal boards,  —  aldermen,  police  commis- 
sioners and  the  rest  ?  " 

"Yes,  you  showed  them  to  me  before 
dinner." 

"  It  was  not  pleasant  for  a  decent  man  to 
have  to  accept  such  things,  knowing  that 


THE   SPIRIT  OF   THE   SERVICE    325 

they  had  been  paid  for  in  the  first  place  by 
the  dive-keepers  of  the  Tenderloin." 

"Julius!" 

"  Well,  weren't  they  ?  But  there  is  one 
of  them  that  I  shall  always  regard  as  an  in- 
teresting souvenir,  —  that  two-handled  tooth 
mug  second  from  the  end." 

"You  might  be  more  gracious,"  she  pro- 
tested. "They  did  their  best." 

He  leaned  forward  to  knock  the  ashes  off 
his  cigar  against  the  edge  of  the  grate. 

"  I  don't  remember  what  board  it  repre- 
sents. The  inscription  will  probably  tell. 
But  the  member  who  was  chosen  to  present 
it,  who  came  forward  beaming  to  make  his 
little  speech,  was  —  you  would  never  guess  ! " 

"  Who  ?  "  she  begged. 

"John  C.  O'Meara!" 

"  No !  " 

"  Yes.  He  has  been  rising  in  the  world 
too." 

"  Julius,  what  did  you  do  ? " 

"  What  would  you  expect  under  the  cir- 
cumstances ?  c  Captain,'  said  he,  c  we've  had 


326     THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   SERVICE 

our  differences,  but  I  hope  you  bear  no 
malice.  We're  all  Americans  together  to- 
day, and  I  want  to  shake  the  hand  of  the 
grandest  sailor  that  ever  trod  the  quarter- 
deck.' " 

Mrs.  Cartwright  beamed  magnanimity. 

"  And  what  did  you  do,  Julius  ? "  she 
repeated. 

He  smiled  at  her  quizzically. 

"Do?"  he  bantered.  "Why,  what  could 
I  do  ?  Wasn't  I  in  the  power  of  the  Phi- 
listines ?  .  .  .  I  wrung  his  hand  most  cor- 
dially." 

"  Thank  heaven  !  "  she  ejaculated. 

"  I  made  a  few  appropriate  remarks,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  blow  his  nose  repeatedly  to 
carry  off  his  superfluous  emotion." 

"  Poor  man,  perhaps  he  isn't  so  bad  after 
all !  Even  a  Tammany  politician  seems  to 
have  some  patriotism  if  you  can  only  get  at 
it." 

"Patriotism  !  "  he  echoed  scornfully.  "Emo- 
tional poppycock ! " 

"  Don't  be  unjust,  dear,"  she  urged.     "  All 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    327 

the  world  can't  have  your  temperament,  you 
know.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  genuine  feel- 
ing which  is  not  concealed." 

He  made  no  reply,  but  gazed  contempla- 
tively at  the  cigar  between  his  middle  and 
index  ringers. 

"  If  you  had  seen,  as  I  have  to-day,  strong 
men  with  tears  coursing  down  their  cheeks, 
women  holding  up  little  children  that  they 
might  be  able  to  say  in  later  years  that  they 
had  seen  you  —  " 

"  Don't  you  know  that  that  same  hysterical 
mob  may  be  abusing  me  like  a  pickpocket  in 
six  months  ?  "  he  interrupted.  "  They  don't 
rend  their  hero  limb  from  limb  nowadays 
when  they  grow  tired  of  him.  But  they  do 
something  crueler.  They  turn  him  over  to 
the  comic  weeklies." 

"  Not  unless  he  does  something  to  deserve 
it,"  she  pleaded. 

"  But  he's  bound  to  do  something  to  deserve 
it  —  from  their  point  of  view,"  he  assured  her, 
warming  to  the  argument.  "  The  great  Ameri- 
can public  throws  itself  on  its  face  and  cries, 


328     THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   SERVICE 

4  Let  me  lick  the  dust  from  the  boots  of  this 
adorable  demigod ! '  The  returning  hero  says, 
f  This  is  exceedingly  kind  of  you,  but  there  is 
really  some  mistake  about  it.  I'm  not  a  demi- 
god, you  know.'  But  the  public  only  licks  the 
harder,  crying,  c  What  a  modest  deity  ! '  And 
then  all  at  once,  when  it  finds  out  he  is  human, 
it  rails  at  him  for  an  impostor  and  turns  him 
over  to  the  cartoonist.  And  when  the  cartoon- 
ist is  through  with  him,  he  drops  into  oblivion 
—  and  is  thankful  to  get  there." 

"  Don't  try  to  spoil  my  pleasure  in  it  all." 

"  Heaven  forbid  !  I  am  trying  to  save  you 
from  heart-burning  when  the  inevitable  sequel 
comes." 

"It  never  occurred  to  me,  Julius,  that  the 
popular  enthusiasm  over  your  return  would 
always  remain  at  white  heat.  I  didn't  suppose 
you  would  be  greeted  with  cheers  to  your  dying 
day  whenever  you  set  foot  in  the  street,  or  be 
mobbed  by  thousands,  whose  highest  ambition 
was  to  shake  your  hand  —  " 

"  I  should  hope  not." 

"  No,  it  would  be  a  great  bore  if  it  lasted. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    329 

But  while  it  is  here,  it  is  genuine.  And 
under  it  all,  there  will  be  something  that 
does  last.  And  that  something  I  suppose  one 
may  as  well  call  fame." 

"  With  a  capital  F  ?  If  it  had  struck  me 
at  two-and-twenty,  I  might  have  thought  so." 

"  Julius,  nobody  was  ever  as  indifferent  to 
praise  as  you  appear  to  be.  It's  an  affecta- 
tion." 

"  I  am  not  in  the  least  indifferent  to  dis- 
criminating praise,  my  dear,"  he  smiled  at 
her,  — cc  yours  first,  then  that  of  my  brother 
officers  at  home  and  abroad.  And  I  should 
value  it  from  intelligent  civilians  too,"  he 
added,  with  elaborate  large-mindedness.  "  But 
the  fulsome  flattery  in  the  newspapers,  with 
its  gross  exaggerations,  its  ignorances  and  in- 
accuracies, and  its  execrable  bad  taste,  is  a 
thing  to  make  one  feel  ashamed,  not  proud." 

"You  should  credit  them  with  their  good 
intentions,  dear.  They  are  doing  the  best  they 
know  how.  Probably  nobody  was  ever  praised 
for  what  most  deserved  praise  in  his  life,  but 
if  the  right  man  gets  about  the  right  amount 


330     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

of  admiration,  the  exact  distribution  of  it  over 
his  career  is  immaterial." 

"  Ah,  now  you're  treading  on  the  edge  of 
great  thoughts.  But  aren't  these  the  same 
newspapers  and  the  same  sheeplike  populace 
who  poured  the  vials  of  their  wrath  on  me 
when  I  sank  the  Bell  Buoy  ?  Wasn't  I  doing 
my  duty  then  just  as  much  as  at  Manila  Bay  ? 
Is  their  praise  any  more  discriminating  than 
their  blame  ? " 

"  Very  much,"  she  asserted  stoutly,  but  he 
only  laughed  at  her. 

"  Dear  lady,  be  not  deceived,"  he  said. 
"  This  is  not  fame.  It  is  only  newspaper 
notoriety,  —  not  very  different  in  kind  from 
that  bestowed  on  the  last  successful  prize 
fighter,  or  the  multi-millionnaire's  daughter 
who  marries  a  decayed  foreign  nobleman." 

"Julius,"  she  cried,  really  pained,  "in  your 
dislike  of  processions  and  public  functions, 
are  you  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  it  was  a 
great  battle,  and  that  you  did  have  a  prominent 
and  highly  honorable  part  in  it,  and  that  — 
whether  you  care  for  it  or  not  —  your  name 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    331 

has  become  a  part  of  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try ?  " 

"  Lake  Erie  was  a  great  battle,  and  Perry 
was  in  command.  But  do  you  happen,  by  any 
chance,  to  remember  the  names  of  his  cap- 
tains ? " 

She  did  not,  but  she  refused  to  admit  the 
analogy. 

He  sat  up  and  tossed  his  cigar  stump  into 
the  grate. 

"  Have  you  reflected,"  he  said,  willing  to 
change  the  subject,  "  that  the  wedding  is  over 
by  this  time  ?  " 

"  Sue's  and  McMasters's  ?  You  are  right, 
and  I  let  the  hour  pass  without  thinking  of  it. 
But  I  wish  them  joy  with  all  my  heart." 

"  And  I  too,"  he  added. 

"  The  wedding  was  to  be  under  the  eucalyp- 
tus trees  on  the  hill  behind  her  father's  coun- 
try house.  Sue  said  that  grove  had  always 
made  her  think  of  a  church  more  than  any  real 
one  did.  Sue  couldn't  even  get  married  just 
like  any  one  else.  I  sometimes  wish  she  were  a 
little  less  original.  It  borders  on  eccentricity." 


332     THE  SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVIBE 

"  Oh,  Sue's  all  right !  It  seems  to  me  rather 
a  pretty  idea.  And  think  how  the  roses  and 
lilies  and  ivy  geraniums  are  blooming  now  in 
California  !  But  Barbara  —  " 

"  Don't  speak  to  me  of  Barbara  !  It  breaks 
my  heart." 

"  Why  shouldn't  the  child  be  happy  in  her 
own  way  instead  of  ours  ? " 

"  Is  she  happy  though  ?  I  always  had  an 
idea  she  was  in  love  with  John  Me  Masters." 

He  made  a  gesture  of  impatience. 

"Why  suppose  that?  It  cheapens  the 
whole  episode.  I  don't  believe  Barbara  was 
ever  in  love  with  anybody.  She  belongs  to 
another  world." 

Mrs.  Cartwright  shook  her  head  sadly. 

"  It's  true  that  she  doesn't  belong  to  this 
world  any  more.  It  is  awful  to  think  of  her 
having  taken  the  vows  that  shut  her  out  like 
iron  gates  from  all  that  is  worth  while." 

"  Standards  of  the  worth  while  differ." 

"  Is  anything  worth  while  ?  "  she  cried,  with 
sudden  impatience. 

"  Ah,  who  shall  say  ? "  he  mused. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE    333 

"  Gran'mudder  !  "  murmured  a  sleepy  voice 
in  the  next  room,  and  they  both  sprang  up  to 
go  to  him. 

"  There's  our  answer,"  whispered  Mrs.  Cart- 
wright,  as  they  stood  looking  down  at  the  child, 
who  had  gone  off  to  sleep  again  before  they 
reached  him. 

He  smiled  understandingly. 

"  If  Elizabeth  were  here  —  "  Mrs.  Cartwright 
began,  when  they  had  resumed  their  seats  by 
the  fire. 

The  shadow  of  their  sorrow  fell  over  them 
both,  and  the  sentence  was  left  unfinished. 

It  was  the  Captain  who  took  it  up. 

"  Ah,  if  Elizabeth  were  here,"  he  said,  "  she 
would  enjoy  it  all  aesthetically, — appreciate  the 
humor  of  it,  too.  But  I  don't  believe  she 
would  be  dazzled  much." 

"  She  would  be  as  proud  of  you  as  I  am," 
her  mother  asserted. 

"  Of  me,  perhaps,  but  not  of  the  celebration. 
Surely,  there  is  a  difference  ?  " 

"  Julius,"  she  said,  "  I  couldn't  change  your 
mental  attitude  toward  it  all  if  I  wished  to, — 


334     THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   SERVICE 

and  I'm  by  no  means  sure  that  I  do.  But  for 
myself — "  She  paused.  Her  voice  trembled 
a  little,  and  there  were  tears  in  her  eyes.  "  For 
myself  I  don't  despise  the  love  of  all  those 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  commonplace  men 
and  women,  lifted  for  the  moment  out  of  the 
humdrum  of  their  lives  —  by  you,  Julius,  by 
you.  And  I  shouldn't  despise  it,  if  I  knew 
they  were  going  to  transfer  it  to  somebody 
else  to-morrow." 

She  waited  a  moment  and  added,  — 

"  This  has  been  the  proudest  day  of  my 
life." 

He  leaned  forward  and  took  her  hand,  lifting 
it  tenderly  to  his  lips. 

"The  proudest  day  of  mine,"  he  said,  "was 
when  I  won  you  for  my  wife,  and  the  next 
proudest — "he  paused  and  chuckled — "well, 
I  think  it  was  when  my  father  bought  me  a 
pair  of  red-topped  boots  !  " 


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««  The  Quest  of  Happiness  "  is  Dr.  Hillis'  very  best 
book.  It  is  strong,  vivid,  clear,  and  has  a  certain  indefin- 
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circulation  and  make  it  a  source  of  great  helpfulness. 
— AMORY  H.  BRADFORD,  Pastor  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church,  Montclair,  N.  J. 

I  find  "The  Quest  of  Happiness  "  a  very  rich  and 
beautiful  work.  It  is  eminently  a  book  for  the  home. — 
PHILIP  S.  MOXON,  Pastor  of  South  Congregational 
Church,  Springfield,  Mass. 

HAPPINESS 

Essays    on   the    Meaning  of  Life.     By  CARL  HILTY. 
Translated  by   Francis   Greenwood   Peabody,    Pro- 
fessor   of  Christian    Morals,    Harvard  University, 
Cambridge.      izmo,  cloth,  75  cents,  postpaid. 
Great  numbers  of  thoughtful  people  are  just  now  much 
perplexed  to  know  what  to  make  of  the  facts  of  life,  and 
are  looking  around  them  for  some  reasonable  interpreta- 
tion of  the  modern  world.     To  this  state   of  mind  the 
reflections  of  Prof.  Hilty  have  already  brought  much  reas- 
surance and  composure. 

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period.      One  hundred  and  ninety-six  reproductions  illus- 
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A  HISTORY  OF  GREEK  ART.      With  an  Intro- 
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By  PROF.   T.    B.   TARBELL,   of  the   University   of 
Chicago.      Profusely  illustrated,      izmo,  cloth. 
This  book  has  been  written  in  the  conviction   that  the 
greatest  of  all  motives  for  studying  art,  the  motive  which 
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"  Breathless  interest  is  a  hackneyed  phrase,  but  every 
reader  of  '  The  Pillar  of  Light '  who  has  red  blood  in 
his  or  her  veins,  will  agree  that  the  trite  saying  applies  to 
the  attention  which  this  story  commands.  —  New  Tor k  Sun. 

THE  WINGS  OF  THE  MORNING 

"  Here  is  a  story  filled  with  the  swing  of  adventure. 
There  are  no  dragging  intervals  in  this  volume  :  from  the 
moment  of  their  landing  on  the  island  until  the  rescuing 
crew  find  them  there,  there  is  not  a  dull  moment  for  the 
young  people — nor  for  the  reader  either." — New  York 
Times. 

THE  KING  OF  DIAMONDS 

"  Verily,  Mr.  Tracy  is  a  prince  of  story-tellers.  His 
charm  is  a  little  hard  to  describe,  but  it  is  as  definite  as 
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PARABLES   OF  LIFE 

Poetic  in  conception,  vivid  and  true  in  imagery,  deli- 
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Poet,  Dramatist,  Man 

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'« almost  unique  in  Shakespeare  literature,  in  it  that  is  a 
continuous  and  thoroughly  worked  out  study  of  the  whole 
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A  BOOK  OF  OLD  ENGLISH  LOVE  SONGS 

Edited  by  Hamilton  Mabie.  Superbly  illustrated  with 
Drawings  and  Decorations  by  George  Wharton  Edwards. 

One  of  the  daintiest  specimens  of  bookmaking,  designed  to  serve 
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A  BOOK  OF  OLD  ENGLISH  BALLADS 

Edited  by  Hamilton  Mabie.  Superbly  illustrated  with 
Drawings  and  Decorations  by  George  Wharton  Edwards. 

"  The  aim  has  bsen  to  bring,  within  moderate  compass,  a  collec- 
tion of  the  songs  of  the  people. — Extract  from  Introduction. 

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